Are You Scared?

Are You Scared?....2006...79 minutes...rated R...starring Alethea Kutscher, Erin Consalvi, Brad Ashten, and Carlee Avers...written and directed by Andy Hurst.

Six young adults wake up in an abandoned factory/warehouse and find themselves contestants in a reality show entitled "Are You Scared?" The show is far too real, and apparently the idea of privacy wavers, liability forms, and safety for the contestants has gone right out the window. These things apparently don't matter when the man behind the game is a twisted psychopath...go figure.

This was a straight-to-video release that I found on FearNet, and the obvious note here is that this flick is obviously a low-rent Saw. Two police detectives are running around trying to track down the crazy man...and so far I've seen no revelation as to why the pyscho is indeed a psycho.(I'm writing as I watch.) The contestants are supposed to be facing their deepest fears, but unlike the Saw franchise I don't think there's any hope of redemption or even survival for the poor saps who got mysteriously abducted. Also, in Saw, the killer was indeed fiendishly clever...I don't think this guy quite measures up.

On a side note, I must be getting older: I'm watching one particular scene that isn't scaring me as much as making me go "ewwwww" and wondering if it was really necessary. I never used to worry about excess gore in my scary movies. Of course, applying the word "scary" to this piece of schlock would be highly inappropriate. Who would have thought I would have considered things like writing quality, tone, etc?

Second side note: as much as I say that a movie (like this one) doesn't even rate being called tripe, I would so act in one of these movies. I wouldn't even need pay, although I'd prefer some sort of recompense. Matching my currrent pay would do for me...and would surely be below scale.

Ah, the twist has arrived. *yawn* Am I scared? Not even vaguely.

I give this movie 1 drill-on-a-track out of 5.