Cornered! (film)
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''Cornered!'' is a 2009 American
slasher film A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic ...
written and directed by Daniel Maze, co-written by Darrin Grimwood, and starring
Steve Guttenberg Steven Robert Guttenberg (born August 24, 1958) is an American actor, author, businessman, producer, and director. He is known for playing Carey Mahoney in the '' Police Academy'' films from 1984 to 1987. He also acted in '' Three Men and a Baby ...
and
James Duval James Edward Duval (born September 10, 1972) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in ''Independence Day'' (1996), '' Go'' (1999), ''Donnie Darko'' (2001), ''May'' (2002), and the films of Gregg Araki. Duval has starred in numerous in ...
. The ensemble cast features
Ellia English Ellia English is an American singer, dancer, stage and film actress. She is best known for her role as Aunt Helen King on the comedy sitcom ''The Jamie Foxx Show'' which originally ran from 1996 to 2001, where she was featured in a central role a ...
, Peter Story, Elizabeth Nicole, and Eduardo Antonio Garcia.


Plot

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
is being terrorized by a masked serial killer whose
modus operandi A (often shortened to M.O. or MO) is an individual's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as . Term The term is often used in ...
is to break into stores after hours, murder the workers, and take the surveillance tapes so he can use them to relive his crimes. At Steve's
liquor store A liquor store is a retail business that predominantly sells prepackaged alcoholic beverages, including liquors (typically in bottles), wine or beer, usually intended to be consumed off the store's premises. Depending on region and local idiom ...
(the main door to which has been boarded up due to an incident with a homeless man) the employees, customers, and a deliveryman named Morty discuss the killer, the $500,000 being offered as a reward for his capture, and how they would kill him, the mentioned methods being eye gouging,
exsanguination Exsanguination is the loss of blood from the circulatory system of a vertebrate, usually leading to death. The word comes from the Latin 'sanguis', meaning blood, and the prefix 'ex-', meaning 'out of'. Exsanguination has long been used as a met ...
in plastic wrap, sawing, and decapitation. After the store closes, Steve has a clerk named Donny, and two regulars (a prostitute named Jess, and a
phone sex Phone sex is a conversation between two or more people by means of the telephone which is sexually explicit and is intended to provoke sexual arousal in one or more participants. As a practice between individuals temporarily separated, it is as ...
worker named Mona) stay to play cards in the upstairs apartment as a means of keeping Steve's nephew Jimmy (an addict going through
drug withdrawal A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via insufflation (medicine), inhalation, drug i ...
) occupied. Unbeknownst to the
quintet A quintet is a group containing five members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single ...
, the Convenience Store Killer has chosen them as his next victims, cutting the homeless man (who resides in a nearby
alley An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane, footpath, path, or passageway, often reserved for pedestrians, which usually runs between, behind, or within buildings in towns and cities. It is also a rear access or service road (back lane), or a path, w ...
) in half before sneaking into the building. When Mona goes downstairs to look for the source of strange noises, the Convenience Store Killer stabs her in the eyes with cornettos, and hides her body in a freezer. Later, Jimmy and Steve are also killed, the former by being stabbed while wrapped in plastic, and the latter by being bisected with the deli's meat saw. Donny and Jess witness Steve's death on a security monitor, and after finding the bodies of Mona and Jimmy, realize the killer is murdering them in the ways they said they would kill him, and that they are trapped in the store without any way to contact help. Forced to try and survive until Morty drops a delivery off at dawn, Jess and Donny find the hidden room where Steve keeps his surveillance equipment, and seal themselves in it. Morty eventually arrives, and has Jess help him try and seal the killer in the basement, so they can claim the reward money. Donny accidentally rewinds Steve's surveillance gear to the earlier discussion about the killer, which causes him to realize that Morty is the murderer, as he is the only one who could have known about the ways the group had said they would bring down the Convenience Store Killer. Jess is beheaded (the way she said she would dispose of the killer) while trying to escape, and Donny is knocked unconscious. Donny awakens with Morty about to kill him, but realizing that Morty needs the surveillance tapes, Donny taunts him by saying that only he knows where Steve's surveillance equipment is hidden. After Morty has Donny show him where the tapes are, the two get into a fight, which ends with them knocking each other out. Hours later, the authorities arrive, and are shown that Morty had killed Donny by
force-feeding Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a human or animal against their will. The term ''gavage'' (, , ) refers to supplying a substance by means of a small plastic feeding tube passed through the nose (nasogastric tube, nasogastric) or mouth (o ...
him donuts (his favorite food). At another store, the customers and employees discuss the recent massacre, with the owner saying that it is nothing compared to what he would do to the Convenience Store Killer. Morty appears, and asks, "Oh yeah? What do you have in mind?"


Cast


Reception

Jimmy O of
Arrow in the Head JoBlo.com is an anchor website of the JoBlo Movie Network focused on news, film reviews, and film trailers. The network has YouTube channels that focus on trailers, movie clips, celebrity interviews, original content, and film distribution. Hi ...
awarded ''Cornered!'' a score of 3 out of 4, commending the visual style and it spending most of its running time focused on atypical characters, though O did admit that the twist was predictable, and that the actions of the characters could induce frustration. An overall grade of 2.5 out of 5 was given by Justin Felix of DVD Talk, who found the plot contrived and the mystery weak, though the murders and quirky characters largely succeeded at making it "a run-around that does entertain" and "a dark yet slightly comic take on the
slasher film A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic ...
s of yesteryear".
Dread Central Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website f ...
gave the film 1.5 out of 5, and wrote that it felt like a padded short, and that it "fancies itself a slasher comedy except as a comedy it's not all that amusing in spite of the best efforts of a game cast, and as a slasher movie there are only two deaths in the first hour and little to get excited, scared, or grossed out by". Steve Porter of
DVD Verdict DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose revie ...
also lambasted ''Cornered!'', stating that it was an "agonizingly slow" film that was full of "moronic horror-film
cliché A cliché ( or ; ) is a saying, idea, or element of an artistic work that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning, novelty, or literal and figurative language, figurative or artistic power, even to the point of now being b ...
s" and no surprises, and ultimately concluding that it was "a complete waste for all but the hardest of hard core slasher fans, who'll probably be disappointed by the relative lack of sickness on display".


Awards

''Cornered!'' was runner-up for Best Picture at the
Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival The Rhode Island International Horror Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Providence, Rhode Island, which features a wide variety of horror, sci-fi, and thriller films, as well as documentaries, from the United States and around the w ...
, and
Ellia English Ellia English is an American singer, dancer, stage and film actress. She is best known for her role as Aunt Helen King on the comedy sitcom ''The Jamie Foxx Show'' which originally ran from 1996 to 2001, where she was featured in a central role a ...
won Best Actress at the
New York City Horror Film Festival The New York City Horror Film Festival is an international film festival based in New York City that screens films from the horror genre. It was founded by Michael J. Hein in 2001. It takes place each year in New York City for a week in November ...
.


References


External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, cornered 2009 films American slasher films Films about drugs Films set in 2008 2009 horror films American serial killer films American comedy horror films Films about prostitution in the United States American independent films American black comedy films Films set in Los Angeles Films about security and surveillance Films shot in Los Angeles 2009 directorial debut films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language horror films