Hoping to forget a box-office disaster, an actress and her friends decide to spend the weekend hanging out, but when one of them notices a child has been kidnapped and held for ransom it causes a rash of murders to sweep the group forcing them to uncover the killer's intentions to leave the island alive.
This was a pretty solid if flawed slasher-style thriller. Among the more enjoyable elements here is the simple-enough setup that permeates plenty of intrigue for its later dispatching. Gathering everyone together at the island and trying to live out the decadence of their normal lives which infuriates the more level-headed sister enough that she secretly wishes them dead, this offers a simple scenario that offers a reasonable excuse to showcase their pettiness and social standings. By the time we get the abduction and their reaction spurring on the continuation of her psychological issues, this early setup starts the film off rather well. That becomes the main selling point for the film in the final half where it turns from the kidnapping thriller to the body-count slasher. Despite most of the scenes taking place off-screen and the group stumbling upon the body afterward, there's a fun atmosphere here as the gruesome nature of the incidents builds rather well towards the shocking finale. It comes off pretty interestingly where the revelation of the killer and their motivation is quite surprising as the back-and-forth nature of revelations against the discoveries of the other bodies is all handled quite well. These all have a lot to like with this one while there are some factors holding this one down. The main issue with this one is the general lack of action that carries on for the first half that makes for a tough time for some. All the work this does with the psychological issues about the groups' relationship with each other and the sisters' burgeoning hysteria comes at the expense of action that would pump up the excitement factor. Consisting of an endless series of melodramatic outbursts and conversations, it really highlights the dearth of activity here until the bodies start dropping around the hour-mark with very little happening before then. The other factor that holds this down is this tacked-on ending that goes on for longer than it really needs to. The emphasis on psychological explanations for the various murders and happenings is somewhat overbearing and doesn't land the way it should with that attempt at explaining everything followed by the feel-good finish. As well, there's also the rather problematic issue here with the lack of gore, sleaze or anything exploitative here since the storyline cries out for that stuff but is conspicuously absent, while all the murders being off-screen doesn't allow for bloodshed either. These aspects are what bring this one down.
Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language, and children-in-jeopardy.
