26 March 2009

Identity

This is kind of a guilty pleasure movie, in that it's completely ridiculous, and yet highly enjoyable. It's basically a mash-up of every suspense/horror technique out there (maybe it's because this hotel is built on... AN OLD INDIAN BURIAL GROUND! gasp!), and yet it manages to be genuinely creepy while being utterly silly. It's a preposterously star-studded cast - John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Clea DuVall, Rebecca DeMornay, Jake Busey, John Hawkes, Amanda Peet, Alfred Molina, and Pruitt Taylor Vince, whose name you probably don't recognize and yet when you see him you're like "OMG IT'S THAT CREEPY DUDE!"

Anyhow, I don't want to say too much more about it so as not to ruin it, but I stand by this movie. I enjoyed it when I came out, and I enjoyed it now, despite knowing how it was going to end. It's the kind of movie that makes you twitch in your seat while simultaneously rolling your eyes, and then you kinda have to laugh and say, well, yeah... I guess I did like it. 

And really, it is impressive that one movie manages to combine SO many tropes in one go, and in an entirely coherent fashion. 

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