Chain Letter (2010)

Excellent but underrated film

Don't listen to the negative reviews

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Flashback to an 80's teen-slasher movie.Oops, and I've deleted so many chain letters.If they kept the atmosphere like in the opening scene throughout the movie, it would have been quite a great movie in its genre. The moment with all those chains reminded me of "Hellraiser" and gave me the hope for an entertaining horror. Vain hope eventually because after the beginning the movie collapsed like a poorly raised plum pudding.Off course all known clichés are used in it : the ubiquitous fog, a bath scene with a nice college girl who,as the tradition dictates, won't survive, a gym, stupid detectives and dumb scared teens. It's something like "Final Destiny" but with a lame story, a totally disappointing ending (that's because the beginning was too strong) and a totally incomprehensible storyline. Afterwards you can only guess why it happened and what the actual reason was. Add to this a terribly bad amateurish group of actors and that damned drizzling rain throughout the complete movie. You surely would get depressed because of that !A total stinker and unworthy for the slasher genre.It's kind of weird because in the cast there are a few who had to know better, according to IMDb. The next persons were present in this flick : Betsy Russell: Saw Michael J. Pagan: See no Evil Charles Fleischer: A Nightmare on Elm Street Keith David: The Thing Matt Cohen: Boogeyman 2 Michael Bailey Smith: A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child, and The Hills Have Eyes The Hills Have Eyes 2 Noah Segan: Cabin Fever 2: Spring FeverSo much potential, such a tiny profit. Better forget it as soon as possible.More reviews at http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/

Blood and guts with very little plot. CHAIN LETTER has a group of high school friends receiving an electronic chain letter that demands they each forward the message or suffer the consequences. They think very little of the message treating it as an online prank. Now the violence begins as the tech-savvy sender begins tracking down his prey one by one. How long will it take to believe the chain letter is responsible for brutal murders? The remaining teens now take the mystery sender seriously as they are forced to fight for their lives. The graphics are more interesting than the too familiar plot. Dialogue and acting are nothing to rave about; but the murders are creative. In the cast: Madison Bauer, Cherilyn Wilson, Nikki Reed, Matt Cohen, Michael J. Pagan and Brad Dourif.

Chain Letter was made at the time that the Saw franchise was over and all torture porn was over. The producers even got Betsy Russell in this flick who got fame due the Saw franchise. But the story itself is a bit weak.Deon Taylor, the director would like to make a good horror but so far he failed, his first attempt 7eventy 5ive (2007) wasn't that good but he knew he had to add some gory bits to the story. That succeeded here in Chain Letter but you just couldn't get involved with the characters. Even the story about the killer isn't really explained. It do make you think about being online and using cellphones with GPS and things you are giving free to hackers without knowing it. But most of those flicks fail to deliver, Hellraiser Hellworld (2005) showed us that even an horror icon just couldn't deliver pain and torture. The script also reminded me on the overlooked FearDotCom (2002). It also shows that when you put big names from the genre in one flick it doesn't give you a hit. Nikki Reed here as Jessie Campbell and seen in the Twilight saga is the main lead and she did well but still I just couldn't care what would happen to her. And look the the fallen angel Noah Segan, he was going to be the next thing in the genre and made a few good flicks, Deadgirl (2008) and his breakthrough with Cabin Fever 2 and Someone's Knocking At The Door, both from 2009. Here he got just a small role. Of course the teaser would be Brad Dourif, but again he just got a small part.Luckily the film is saved by the gore added and it was good to see that it was done with the real stuff and not with CGI. It do has a few gory moments but for a torture porn too less to become a classic. The suspense is just not there. Maybe the underground figure was Cherilyn Wilson as Rachael Conners, she do moved on from this flick to small roles in Dexter and True blood, one to look out for and she isn't afraid to show her body, She's the only one here who goes fully undressed and has a close-up as gratuitous as it can be of her juggs. Chain Letter isn't that good after all but some gore saved the letter...Gore 3/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 4/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Chain Letter is not very good. I can relax my standards for horror movies typically if it has some redeeming qualities. An interesting character or a cool villain or unique plot are all components that can get me through. This movie lacked all of these and really lacked any hope of being a decent movie.The movie seems so similar to any horror movie that it's hard to find anything it does well. If you like gruesome deaths, than it has a couple unique "chain related" moments. Other than that, the movie is shallow story wise, has flat characters provides very little pay off. There isn't much suspense built up either, but certain scenes showed some promise.I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone unless they absolutely love chains.