Atrocious Thinking Matters: ATM (2012)

ATM (Canada/US, 2012)
Rating: *1/2
Starring:  Alice Eve, Josh Peck and Brian Geraghty

This is an interesting premise; three bank personnel find themselves stuck inside a nearly abandoned carpark ATM booth during Christmas Eve. Why? Cuz a creep in a hoodie is out there watching them and has just killed somebody to prove they're serious about harming them.

Let's count that: three adults. One killer. In the middle of the city. How hard can it be to stop this fella?

So that's one point down for this mediocre thriller and sorta slasher movie from the guys who wrote the equally mediocre Buried (2010); the rest of the movie's downfall is, well, I never got that engaged in the situation. I just couldn't. If there's anything, I'm rooting more on seeing the killer snuff them all out since they're probably the only one with a brain. Or half a brain. (He came to kill people without any weapons. What if one of these guys had a gun?) I mean, I can tell that bakers were bit weirded out when this creeper just popped out of nowhere and just stares at them. Probably even more freaked out when the freak decided to bash a guy's head against the pavement, but I've seen a lot of opportunities for our sad protagonists to just run, gang up on the killer and live a happy life for the next 40 years or so. But no, they're freaked out by a goon in a partially menacing hoodie, who did nothing but stare and kill with things they're just lucky enough to have cuz our banker friends stupidly leave them behind, too scared to go back and get it from them.

Pros? Good acting, especially from Josh Peck, who I respect a little bit coz I used to be a fan of the Nickelodeon teen sitcom Drake and Josh. I also have to keep points for the killer, who looks rather cool in their Urban Legend (1998) - inspired parka, as well as the movie's devilish twist ending which at least explains why this killer didn't bother moving in to the ATM booth to do their killings after all this time.

So, skip it?

Oh yeah, definitely skip it! If you want to shower yourself with a D-flick that serves no purpose but to "thrill" you with cheap, logic-less plot? Here's your cup of tea and have fun. You, the rest? Find yourself a classic B-flick and just do better with yourself!

Bodycount:
1 male had his head bashed repeatedly against the pavement
1 male brained to death with a crowbar
1 male garroted
1 male gets a screwdriver to the gut, crushed by an incoming car
1 female hits her head against a counter
Total: 5