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Cast: Nikki Reed, Keith David, Brad Dourif, Betsy Russell, Michael J. Pagan, Ling Bai
Six high school friends are bound together again by a sinister chain letter passing into their lives through e-mails and text messages. If the deadly letter isn’t passed on, the recipient faces a grisly, unexpected death – and nothing can stop it. As time runs out and the deadly letter’s rules become more challenging, the survivors must untangle the chilling secret – or die trying.
The opening credits remind us all that with all the new technology today that we seem to take for granted there is a price to pay as far as our privacy goes, our texts, cell phones and computers can be used to reach out to friends and family instantly but it can all be used against us as well. Fan's of horror from the 80's and 90's are sure to enjoy this one and Director, Deon Taylor did a great job at keeping the gore and suspense high. Maybe not original but for what it is "Chain Letter" delivers on the goods. My only complaint is I thought they could of done a little better job at developing the characters before they were killed off and I thought the cult being behind the killings because they hate technology could of been better explained since we only see one psycho-killer doing the dirty deeds the entire film. The film certainly could of been much better had they touched on those few areas a bit more but considering this is a horror film it has plenty of positives to make up for it's flaws. For starters the filled does a great job at creating some thrilling and suspenseful moments and it does maintain a brisk pace for the majority of it's run-time, plus if gore is like you then you will be pleased to know that "Chain Letter" delivers a bloody good time. Another plus here is the cast which includes, Keith David as Detective Jim Crenshaw. Nikki Reed as Jessie Campbell, Brad Dourif as Mr. Smirker and Betsy Russell as Sergeant Hamill. With a cast like this you can't go wrong and "Chain Letter" is a very effective and entertaining horror film.
For some reason the film stayed under the radar during it's brief theatrical release, I am not sure what caused the decision to only release the film limited but maybe it was those very flaws I spoke about but either way I believe it will find a good home now on DVD and Blu-ray. The film is being offered in it's R rated version and Unrated version which is 2 minutes longer, there are no special features on either but horror buffs are not going to be effected by that. You can order whichever version you want HERE.
Released by Image Entertainment
*** 1/2 Out Of *****