- P2 (film)
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P2 
Official P2 film poster.Directed by Franck Khalfoun Produced by Alexandre Aja
Erik Feig
Grégory Levasseur
Patrick WachsbergerWritten by Alexandre Aja
Franck Khalfoun
Grégory LevasseurStarring Rachel Nichols
Wes Bentley
Simon Reynolds
Grace Lynn Kung
Paul Sun-Hyung LeeMusic by tomandandy Cinematography Maxime Alexandre Editing by Patrick McMahon Distributed by Summit Entertainment (US)
Destination Films (UK)Release date(s) November 9, 2007 Running time 98 minutes Country United States
CanadaLanguage English Budget $3.5 Million Box office $7,584,398 P2 is a 2007 thriller film[1] directed by Franck Khalfoun, written and produced by Khalfoun, Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur and starring Rachel Nichols and Wes Bentley.
The trio of Khalfoun, Aja and Levasseur have worked on other genre films as well, including the critically acclaimed 2006 film The Hills Have Eyes. The name of the film comes from the underground parking garage level in which the film takes place. The plot revolves around Angela (Nichols), a young businesswoman who is imprisoned on Christmas Eve in the parking garage beneath the downtown Manhattan office block where she works. Her captor is loner Thomas (Bentley), the obsessive and psychopathic security guard of the underground parking lot, who has been secretly stalking Angela for sometime and has finally snapped, leading to a murderous game of cat-and-mouse.
P2 was rated "R" by the MPAA for "strong violence/gore, terror and language."[2]
Contents
Plot
Young businesswoman Angela Bridges works in a downtown Manhattan office block and gets stuck working late on Christmas Eve, before leaving to attend a family party. On her way to her car in the second underground parking lot level (P2) beneath the office block, she discovers that her car won't start. After receiving some assistance from the security guard named Thomas and turning down his offer to spend Christmas with him, she calls for a taxi and waits in the lobby. When the taxi arrives, she discovers she's locked in the lobby, and runs back into the parking garage. The lights soon shut down and Angela, guided by the light on her cell phone, wanders around the deserted parking lot. Thomas drugs Angela with chloroform and takes her to his office.
Later, Angela awakens in a haze inside Thomas's office, having been changed into a white dress and high-heels by Thomas and chained to the table. Thomas tells Angela that he loves her despite her "many sins", having obsessively watched and recording Angela for some time through the CCTV in the office block. Despite Angela's pleas and threats, Thomas continues to hold her against her will, even forcing her to call her family and lie about an illness so that no one will come looking for her. Angela tries to escape, but cannot due to Thomas' Rottweiler.
Taking Angela to another level of the parking lot, Thomas reveals her co-worker Jim Harper (Simon Reynolds) tied to an office chair. Thomas believes Jim is evil after he witnessed Jim drunkenly hitting on Angela at an office party. After beating him with a flashlight, Thomas rams him into the wall with his car multiple times, killing him. Amidst the murder, Angela is able to escape.
While Thomas hides the evidence, Angela rushes back to the office and steals some key cards. Angela runs to the elevators with Thomas right behind, and enters. While in the elevator, Angela calls for help from the panel of the elevator. She hears a voice that appears to be an operator but later turns out to be Thomas. Thomas then flushes her out by flooding the elevator with a fire hose from a higher floor.
While hiding in the parking lot, Angela is then tormented by Thomas who plays Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" over the intercom. She breaks open an emergency fire axe and begins to destroy the cameras one by one while making her way to his office, prepared to fight. Once entering, she finds a video playing of Thomas molesting her body while she was drugged. After a short fight, Thomas manages to knock Angela out.
Angela manages to escape while Thomas is talking to two policemen and kills his dog. She tries to escape by car, but is side-swiped by Thomas in another vehicle, leading up to a game of chicken, which Angela wins. However, in the heat of the chase, Angela flips the vehicle. Thomas opens the door and Angela, feigning injury, manages to stab Thomas in the eye and handcuff him to the car. Taking his Taser, she begins to leave, until Thomas insults her. She uses the Taser to ignite a stream of gasoline leaking from the car. Thomas is engulfed in the flames and dies as the car explodes. Angela opens the garage gate and walks out into a cold and desolate Manhattan morning just as an ambulance can be heard stopping to help her.
Cast
- Rachel Nichols ... Angela Bridges
- Wes Bentley ... Thomas Barclay
- Simon Reynolds ... Jim Harper
- Philip Akin ... Karl Donson
- Stephanie Moore ... Lorraine Bridges
- Miranda Edwards ... Jody McKlennan
- Paul Sun Hyung ... Doug Tran Phu (Man in Elevator)
- Grace Lynn Kung ... Kim Phu (Women in Elevator)
- Philip Williams ... Cop #1
- Arnold Pinnock ... Cop #2
Production
The film re-unites Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur, and Franck Khalfoun who had previously worked together as director, writer and editor, respectively, on the 2006 film The Hills Have Eyes. Aja explains of the film, comparing it to his previous work, French slasher film High Tension, "With a strong plot in the vein of High Tension, P2 gives us a chance to further explore the survival aspect of the terror movie."[3]
P2 began principal photography on August 14, 2006, and continued filming through late 2006.[3] Filming took place exclusively at night, at a real working Toronto parking garage. There were fourteen white dresses made for the character of Angela to wear; each one was in various stages of dirtiness and decay. Three different dogs were used to portray Thomas' Rottweiler.[4]
It was intended to be featured in the UK based London FrightFest Film Festival in August 2007,[5] but was pulled out soon before its date and replaced with Teeth.[6]
P2 was featured in an ad campaign on the social networking website Myspace, where a trailer for the film could also be streamed.[7]
Sales
P2 was released theatrically in the United States on November 9, 2007, and in the United Kingdom on May 2, 2008.[8] In the US, the film suffered poorly on its opening week at the box office gaining just $2,083,398 which is, as of December 2008, the 2nd worst opening week ever for a very wide release (2,000+ cinemas).[9]
P2 was released on DVD in the snap-case format on April 8, 2008, and includes an anamorphic widescreen transfer with dolby 5.1 surround and special features include cast and crew commentary, production notes and three behind the scenes featurettes. DVD sales of the film fared better than the box office sales.
Critical reception
The critical reception to P2 was generally mixed. As of November 29, 2009 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, P2 had a rating of 36%. Out of a total of 67 reviews, the film has 23 "fresh" reviews and 44 "rotten" reviews, with an average rating of 4.3 out of 10.[10]
On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 37 out of 100, based on 12 reviews.[11]
There were however some positive reviews of P2. Roger Ebert liked the film, giving it 3 out of 4 stars, and stated in his review that "although the plot may seem like a formulatic slasher film, P2 is in fact a very well made, atmospheric thriller with gritty yet realistic characters."[12]
References
- ^ http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=3193
- ^ "Additional Details". IMDB. http://imdb.com/title/tt0804516/. Retrieved 2007-09-08.
- ^ a b "P2—more survival horror from Alexandre Aja". Fangoria.com. Archived from the original on October 24, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071024040030/http%3A//fangoria.com/news_article.php%3Fid%3D2649. Retrieved 2007-09-08.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804516/trivia
- ^ "UK’s Film4 FrightFest details". Fangoria.com. Archived from the original on October 24, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071024040036/http%3A//fangoria.com/news_article.php%3Fid%3D4647. Retrieved 2007-09-08.
- ^ "Teeth (2007)". eatmybrains.com. http://www.eatmybrains.com/showfeature.php?id=68. Retrieved 2007-09-15.
- ^ "P2". myspace.com. 2007-10-09. http://i22.tinypic.com/2db3pnd.jpg. Retrieved 2007-10-09.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804516/releaseinfo
- ^ WORST WIDE OPENINGS
- ^ "P2 - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/p2/. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
- ^ "P2 (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/p2. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
- ^ http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071108/REVIEWS/711080305/1023[dead link]
External links
- Official website
- P2 at the Internet Movie Database
- P2 at Rotten Tomatoes
- P2 at Metacritic
- P2 at Box Office Mojo
- P2 at AllRovi
Categories:- American films
- Canadian films
- 2007 films
- English-language films
- Psychological thriller films
- Christmas films
- 2000s thriller films
- Summit Entertainment films
- Canadian thriller films
- American thriller films
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