How to Avoid Crazy Security Guards While Trapped in a Parking Garage

Because security guards can be dangerous

So last night, since I couldn’t watch the Super Bowl (thanks Dish Network for not carrying my local NBC affiliate…bastards), I went through my Netflix Watch Instantly queue and added P2. I thought, you know what, why not a bad horror movie to celebrate not being able to see the big game? So, I cranked up the Roku player, popped some popcorn, and prepared myself for a cheesy gore-fest. Fortunately, that’s not what P2 turned out to be at all.

First off, let me give you some insight into what I like in a horror film. I like atmospheric and suspenseful plots with just the right amount of gore thrown in to make you know that the threat is real enough to harm the protagonist but not so much gore that it becomes a B move campfest. I’m particularly fond of horror movies that include plausible scenarios. That’s why I enjoyed The Strangers so much because, as crazy as it was, something like that could plausibly happen. I got the same thing from P2. I’m a fan of the monsters, demons, and other horror staples as well, don’t get me wrong, but “plausible horror” is the best kind in my eyes.

Now, let me give you some brief insight into what I don’t like about a horror film: cheesy Asian re-makes, a “hot chick” in the lead role for the sake of having a “hot chick” in the lead role, spirits somehow using technology to attack people (Pulse, Feardotcom, One Missed Call…I’m looking at you), and finally, the one thing above all others that will turn me off from a horror movie faster than a Vegas strip club full of bearded midgets, the dreaded PG-13 rating. If your horror film is rated PG-13, then chances are it’s not really going to be a horror movie at all. Okay, so now that that’s out of the way, on to the review.

First of all, I’m not a huge Alexandre Aja fan. I thought The Hills Have Eyes remake was fairly mediocre and Mirrors was just Jack Bauer fighting evil spirits trapped in mirrors making people rip their jaws off. So, again, I had pretty low expectations going into P2. The good news is that Aja only wrote the screenplay and produced this film. Directing credits went to Franck Khalfoun.

The film opens up on Christmas Eve in a Manhattan high-rise with the lead character, Angela (Rachel Nichols), working late doing whatever important people in big buildings do in New York. In the opening, we see a man come into her office to apologize for his inappropriate behavior earlier at a company Christmas party. Then we start seeing everyone in the building leaving to spend Christmas with their loved ones. Angela is trying to get to a family gathering at her sister’s house, but she’s running late. Eventually, after the building is pretty much empty, she leaves…or tries to anyway.

Angela goes to her car, which is the lone car left on the parking deck (P2 of course), and discovers that her car won’t start. Enter our friendly security guard, Tom (Wes Bentley). At first Tom feigns rendering assistance to Angela. Then, after missing her cab, the fun really begins. Tom eventually kidnaps Angela and puts her through a night of living hell in an inescapable parking garage.

All in all, the film was well made and creepy enough. While there was some gore, it didn’t steal the show like you would expect from Aja. No, this was not his usual torture porn variety horror movie. I presume this may have been more due to budget constraints than anything, but nonetheless it’s not overburdened by cheapened gore effects for “shock” value. There’s a scene in which Tom exacts vengeance on the dude who got out of hand with Angela at the Christmas party. That entire sequence is pretty brutal but it gives credibility to the fact that the villain is indeed dangerous and insane.

Tom, for his part as a villain, is quite simply obsessed with Angela. The film alludes to the fact that he’s been essentially stalking her for quite a while. He seems to know things about her that he shouldn’t, such as her family member’s names and such. What I liked about this, was the fact that it didn’t really bother explaining why or how he got the information. He’s just presented as a crazy lunatic stalker and that this night has been coming for him for a long, long time. Initially Tom was presented as an overly friendly, yet slightly creepy security guard trying to assist Angela with her car dilemma. Of course, you can infer that he set the entire thing up. His end goal is not to kill Angela but rather somehow force her to love him. Fearing for her life, she tries everything in her power to escape him.

No one can say that this film is ground breaking or never been done before. In fact, it’s been done a hundred times before, but it works, mainly because of Wes Bentley’s acting as Tom. He portrays the character quite convincingly. Rachel Nichols does an alright job as Angela attempting to escape but she does little to draw empathy from the audience as she’s essentially portrayed throughout the film as a royal bitch. I thought it was interesting that Aja took this turn with the protagonist. Sure, you feel for her situation as she’s being stalked by a madman but in the beginning of the film, she’s not necessarily the type of person that would tug at your heartstrings.

Finally, the ending is pretty routine fare. What you’d come to expect from a standard horror film. In fact, the climax of the film was pretty cheesy. Still, the film was good enough as a whole to carry this kind of ending.

Overall, I’d say that P2 is a pretty decent horror film. The fact that Angela is trapped in the parking garage with Tom all night on Christmas Eve lends credence to the “plausible scenario.” Angela never really does the kind of thing you see in horror films that makes you throw your hands in air whilst yelling “no don’t do that” at the screen. It’s creepy and atmospheric with just the right amount of gore thrown in so you know it’s still a horror film. If you have Netflix’s Watch Instantly on your plan or you’re looking for a decent horror film at the video store, give P2 a shot. It wasn’t great, but it certainly isn’t the worst horror movie you could watch.