I know a lot of people who aren’t too enamored with my next movie. I on the other hand really enjoyed the 10 Little Indians based horror thriller Identity. What it comes down to is if you can accept the actual premise then you will like this movie. If you can not, you will end up hating it most likely. I am in the former group and this is one of my favorite thrillers of the early 21st Century.
I am going to avoid spoilers for this one completely but I can not promise that the comments will avoid them. So I really recommend watching the movie first before reading the comments below.
Identity is the story of 10 travelers who become stranded at a small hotel in the middle of nowhere after the highway is flooded out. The 10 strangers are consist of a limo driver (John Cusack), an ‘80s TV star (Rebecca DeMornay), a cop (Ray Liotta) who is transporting a killer (Jake Busey), a call girl (Amanda Peet), a pair of newlyweds (Clea DuVall and William Lee Scott) and a family in crisis (John C. McGinley, Leila Kenzle, Bret Loehr). As the 10 strangers take shelter from the storm they soon discover that someone or something is killing them off one by one.
What really makes this movie a great thriller for me is the cast combined with the premise. I am a fan of pretty much all the actors. None of them are truly mainstream A grade actors but that is what makes it all the more interesting. They are all extremely strong and the overall story is very compelling.
If you haven’t already figure it out I am being very vague when it comes to Identity. I want you to watch it but I do not want to tell you what is really going on and if I try to delve into the story or why several people I know dislike this movie too much will be said. All I can say is that at times it is as creepy at hell and I really enjoyed the tension that was created between the 10 as they slowly die one by one. I challenge you to see this and to let me know what you think. I’m also curious to know when you figured out who the murderer is.
Oh and the poster over on the right is an Asian version which I really like. I’ll never understand why they dropped the cool hand print or even the Asian one when it came time for the DVD release. They picked the most generic boring image. You can check it out here.
Movie laboratories are one of my favorite things ever. Metropolis,...
I enjoyed this one, too. I can’t defend it any more than that. It’s enjoyable.
(Oh and I will always remember this flick for the one which started my mum’s bragging from then on – we watched it together along with others family members and she guessed the ending and no one else did:P Anyone else ever get that with a film?)
I enjoyed this film as well. Clever twist on the ending. I watched it in the theatre when it came out and didn’t know what to expect.
Excellent review. Excellent movie.
I believe with the DVD cover they wanted to disassociate themselves from the theatrical release, because it hadn’t done as well as they wanted. That or they wanted to go with the stars’ faces rather than an image that they felt didn’t pull people in.
Ross, I had that experience with two friends after “The Sixth Sense” – they both claimed to have worked it out half way through, and then bragged about it for weeks afterwards.
I really enjoyed this flick but they lost it with the last few minutes. The movie would have a perfect ending when Peet’s character drives up the orange tree field and just stopped there instead of going the obvious shock ending that it had.
I thought the ending was unnecessary, weakening and cheapening the rest of the movie. Not nearly as clever as it wanted to be.
But other than that, I did enjoy this movie.
Hey John,
I’m glad to see Identity up here! Great review….hope to see more of my suggestions up here!
This is one of those rare movies that both myself and my 60+ year old father both liked. That says a lot about the movie. I think it’s held up pretty well too and you can’t beat that cast. You missed John Hawkes though! He plays the perfect creepy guy.
I liked this movie until it decided to shat in my mouth during the last act. ZOMG, the twist is a twist!!!
Nice to see you over here Derek. You’ll fit in nicely.
@Serena – There sure will be a few more from your list. I’m spacing them out through the entire month.
@Matt – I like the twist. I get the feeling that most people who do not like the twist dislike it because it turns the characters into something they don’t really care about anymore. Personally I like them even more once the twist happens.
@Swarez – I’ll give you that the ending could have been better but that is just 2 minutes of the entire movie and it wasn’t enough to ruin the rest for me.
One of the rare few films that a bad twist doesn’t undermine (for me anyway) the rest of the movie was HIGH TENSION. Sure the twist sucks ass, but It can’t make me ignore how well the tension of the middle, post-farmhouse, act was of the film. That was damn good filmmaking.
I happen to like Philip Nahon as an actor as well.
I’m not sure I even remember the twist. I do remember figuring out who the killer was almost immediately; which was kind of annoying. I looked at the characters and thought, “who is the least likely to be a murderer?” Boom. I was right.
I remember being upset with the ending, but now I can’t really remember what happened. Maybe I’ll re-visit one of these days.
They are cool posters though!