I'm no stranger to films with borrowed plots, but this one reminded me a lot of Saw and Saw II. If you didn't notice from some of the other reviews, I might have a slight obsession with James Wan (writer of Saw), so I'm definitely familiar. Coinciding with the second Saw film, strangers are brought together and asked to figure out what they have in common. And similar to the first Saw film, instead of a character sawing off his foot, one of these guys has someone help him by breaking a hand so he can slide it out of his handcuff.
What they didn't borrow from the Saw films unfortunately, was a good twist. Sure, the reason why the strangers are brought to the room is interesting. They have all contributed to someone's death and done some horrible things to others in the process. There definitely could have been other or more entertaining ways to come to this conclusion however.
My first issue with the film: pace. The killer gave everyone ten minutes to tell him why the strangers were all brought here before he would make his next fatal shot. It felt as if there were hours between deaths though. And the worst part, was I couldn't even find myself empathizing with the characters enough to want the time to drag on. I almost asked the killer to shoot me next so I wouldn't have to finish the movie.
Not only was the ending disappointing, but the last frame faded to black and the credits came down before any substance could be added or horribleness could be justified. It was just over. I wonder if the writers gave up or the director shot himself when he realized this was going to have his name on it.
Do yourself a favor and save yourself and others from ever watching this. It's 98 minutes you can't get back. Nine Dead: all horrible and no awesome. Well, it was awesome when the credits rolled out.
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