P2

TARTAN

RELEASED 2 May 2008

There can’t be many locations more suitable for a horror-thriller than a ghostly quiet underground car park. Working late on Christmas Eve, young New York executive Angela (Rachel Nichols) is the last to leave her office. Alone on level 2 of the car park (where the ‘P2’ of the title originates), her late night gets worse when her car won't start. The seemingly helpful car park night guard, Thomas (Wes Bentley), is actually determined to see Angela spend the holiday season with him in his office. Hey, he’s even bought her a nice dress. Cue much screaming, stabbing, and running. 

I quite enjoyed ‘P2’, although I felt it couldn’t make up it’s mind whether to be ‘realistic’ thriller or a ‘Hollywood’ thriller. There’s a lack of Hollywood histrionics until towards the end where it starts to feel a bit like Wes Bentley could shout ‘here’s Johnny’ at any moment! Perhaps more variation location-wise would have helped, and it all needed to be a bit ‘snappier’ in the editing room. But good scenes included a water-filling lift, a nervy cop patrol sequence, and a couple of good gore moments.

Rachel Nichols cries convincingly as our terrorized damsel, giving a performance better than a genre flick deserves in fact. And I have to mention how good she looks in a wet dress, which I think the director was well aware of! Wes Bentley plays what could have been a corny ‘Norman Bates’ type with measured restraint too. Sharper dialogue and more character insight might have elevated the whole film.

While ‘P2’ is an adequate Friday night shocker, it won’t stay long in the memory, which is a shame as it had the potential to be a lot better because of Nichols and Bentley. Considering this is director Franck Khalfoun’s debut, he might go on to better things. 

THREE OUT OF FIVE