Hard to identify

Rating: 7/10 (3 November 2012)

Identity starts off brilliantly. It has various flash-backs and flash-forwards to keep you all entertained and works almost as a puzzle. It's clever and engaging and lets us all get to know the wonderful array of characters who obviously end up stranded at a motel. From then on, Identity tries to pull in a slasher element that would work if it actually tried to be a horror film and not just a thriller with killings. I mean, if you look at James Mangold's previous works, "3:10 to Yuma", "Walk the Line" etc. He's not exactly in touch with the horror genre and that's almost what the film pretends to be.
Nevertheless it's very entertaining, but could've been executed better. The cast is great and the writing intelligent. Identity thrives off its characters, all of them different and engaging. You have to have a reaction when one of them gets the chop! The trouble being that the chops aren't very well done. Most of the kills are off-camera and don't generate up a lot of tension. Howver, it's the twist which the film thrives off. It had mixed reactions in my house. I thought it was really clever (although I had accidentally read an element of it before I'd actually seen it) and although something similar is regularly done in today's films (especially the horror genre) it was also buried under other elements which gives the film a whole new edge to it. Some might call it silly and pointless, but I call it original and intelligent.
Identity isn't much of a horror film, which is a shame because I'm sure if it was approached as a slasher I'm sure I'd be giving it a solid 8. It does generate thrills but not as many as you might imagine. Perhaps if it was done today, it would've had a better look and feel to it. But that's not to say it's a bad film, because its not. It's genuinely interesting, has fantastic character development and is also extremely atmospheric with its use of pathetic fallacy and claustrophobia. It's worth a see, but don't go expecting something as great as some people like to paint.