horror-flavored suspense thriller

Rating: 8/10 (7 January 2006)

This movie starts out as Dracula, but ends up as Magnum Force.
The protagonists were so poorly-defined that 1.) I didn't even know their names until looking on IMDb.com 2.) I didn't know enough about them to form an opinion on whether or not I liked them.
The blonde-haired kid wants to be a WRITER and has ASTHMA. The dark-haired kid is doing some LAW SCHOOL thing, I think, and apparently SPEAKS German. The other guy is TALLER and OLDER and FROM ICELAND and has a KID.
All this is is a suspense thriller which turns into a revenge movie and is packaged as a horror movie.
The plot is largely stolen from that "Mutilated Bride" urban legend: http://www.snopes.com/weddings/horrors/shanghai.asp
There were a couple stupid movie clichés used, like: 1. Shock doesn't exist. If you have two fingers amputated, the blood loss will just make you act like you have a beer hangover.
2. A guy who's just had his fingers amputated can defeat several larger men who probably have had prior military training because HE GETS THE DROP ON THEM.
But all faults aside, this movie could have been a lot worse... with the slow start and the scene where the girl's toe is cut off (off-camera) I was expecting most of the film to have that lame movie cop-out violence, and it didn't.
So yeah, I think it was worth the ticket price.