Pretty Predictable Plot - But Direction & Acting Make it Entertaining

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2004)

CAUTION: SOME SMALL SPOILERS AHEAD! Even though I was able to figure out the hidden plot, and the killer before the end, I was still on the edge of my seat the whole time. It goes to show you that if you have a really good cast and director, a simplistic, yet well-applied plot can be worth the effort. If you ever studied psychology, you can pick up what's going on pretty early. There are 10 people, who all have a few, specific things in common. They get stuck together in a motel (reminiscent of a few episodes of the Twilight Zone) and are barred from leaving by seemingly unrelated things (The rain, which is a character in the movie itself Â– nice touch; the phones all being dead; the `accidents' that seem to bring everyone together in the first place). They start to die off one by one, and what starts out like a typical where-is-the-psycho-killer-hiding slasher flick, begins to get stranger and more mysterious. The movie gives some obvious, but easily missed clues about some of the characters that are cool to catch the second time around, or after you've watched and are thinking about it. The very end of the movie bothered me a bit in that it seemed typical of most B-horror flicks, but it is forgivable. John Cusack is one of my favorites, and he didn't disappoint here either. He brought a gentle strength that neither disappeared nor went overboard. And while some people have complained of overacting or overdone dialogue, I think the cast did an excellent job and that it fit in the film. Think `And Then There Were None', `Psycho', `The Twilight Zone' and `Memento' and you've got `Identity'. Not as strong as the predecessors above, but still good entertainment.