Unscary, uninteresting tosh from people who should know better.
P2 (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:67
Fresh:23
Rotten:44
Average Rating:4.3/10
Consensus: P2 is full of gore, but low on suspense, featuring a cat-and-mouse plot has been done many times before.
Rated: 18 [See Full Rating] for strong violence/gore, terror and language.
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:02-05-2008
Synopsis: Most people who have been alone in a parking garage have probably felt vulnerable to an attacker amidst the silence of the cold concrete walls, but what would you do if your assailant were the... Most people who have been alone in a parking garage have probably felt vulnerable to an attacker amidst the silence of the cold concrete walls, but what would you do if your assailant were the attendant? That's the question posed by P2, which fits into that sub-genre of thrillers that unfold in one primary location (think Mario Bava's KIDNAPPED, PHONE BOOTH, or WIND CHILL). The script, co-written by Alexandre Aja (THE HILLS HAVE EYES, HIGH TENSION), Franck Khalfoun, and Gregory Levasseur, offers a basic cat-and-mouse tale with a couple of jolts of bone-rattling gore. It's Christmas Eve, and young New York executive Angela (Rachel Nichols) is the last to leave her office before heading to New Jersey for a holiday with the family. Already late, she is dismayed to find that her car won't start. The handsome, seemingly helpful garage attendant, Thomas (Wes Bentley), checks out the car for her, but to no avail. The next thing she knows, Angela wakes up in the garage office in a dress, chained to a chair, with a Christmas dinner laid out before her. Thomas has been watching her for a long time, and with everyone else gone for Christmas, he finally has her alone. Angela will have to fight with everything she has to make it through to Christmas morning. Under the first-time direction of co-screenwriter Khalfoun, P2 is a solid thriller that delivers ample action, despite being an amped-up two-person stage play. Nichols is an appealing heroine in a physically demanding role, while Bentley's wacko Thomas never veers into cartoonishness. This isn't one for the SAW crowd, though the two brief moments of splatter are certainly of that gross-out caliber. Vintage Christmas songs are also used to strong effect. [More]
Starring: Wes Bentley, Rachel Nichols
Starring: Wes Bentley, Rachel Nichols
Director: Franck Khalfoun
Director: Franck Khalfoun
Screenwriter: Franck Khalfoun, Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur
Story: Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur
Producer: Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur, Patrick Wachsberger, Erik Feig
Composer: Tomandandy
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Reviews for P2
P2 is nothing fancy or flashy. It could use more innovation, and either tension or dark creepiness, but all in all, it's not a bad directing debut for Khalfoun.
There's some ghoulish humor in P2, and a couple of scares, but it's little more than the umpteenth variation of the woman-locked-in-a-house plot.
P2 struggles to maintain its momentum because there's simply not enough to do in a parking garage to fill out a feature film.
a strictly middle-of-the-road entry in the slasher genre, scoring points for performances and areas of execution but running out of creative juice far too early, settling for stock chills and thrills
... a well-tooled premise executed with surprising restraint, at least compared to the gore-centric sadism of the current crop of horror films.
A serviceable gore-minded thriller --- a competent execution of a premise that ultimately becomes hampered by its inherent constraints.
all the pieces are in place for a great thriller - and then, just like your typical Yuletide get-together, it all falls a little flat.
Swift and stealthy P2 is a canny exploitation of one of the urban woman's greatest fears: the after-hours parking garage.
Wes Bentley...may be a tad over the top as a sociopathic parking attendant, but the paces he puts his victim through are cleverly thought out (one impossibility excepted) and continually rachet up the tension.
Manages to churn out enough tension and thrills to keep things interesting.
A slickly efficient neo-grindhouse shocker, a gory palate cleanser for this season of high-toned Oscar magnets and high-minded political dramas.
Latest News for P2
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