Suspended Animation (2001)

User Rating:

5.0/10   

Director:

John D. Hancock

Writer:

Dorothy Tristan (writer)

Release Date:

25 December 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

Will Chill You To The Bone

Plot:

Animator Thomas Kempton gets more than he bargained for when a snowmobile trip turns to terror in the wilds of Northern Michigan...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Suspense | Severed Finger | Wheelchair | Independent Film

Cast

Alex McArthur	...	Tom Kempton
Laura Esterman	...	Vanessa Boulette
Sage Allen	...	Ann Boulette
Rebecca Harrell	...	Hilary Kempton
Fred Meyers	...	Sandor Hansen
Maria Cina	...	Clara Hansen
Jeff Puckett	...	Cliff Modjeska
Daniel Riordan	...	Jack Starr
J.E. Freeman	...	Philip Boulette
Sean Patrick Murphy	...	Fred Phelps
Daniel Mooney	...	Arnold Mann
Gary J. Mion	...	Sheriff Montaigne
Joe Forbrich	...	Production Manager
Robert Breuler	...	Dr. Leo Sagan
Denise Bohn	...	Correspondence 1

Also Known As:

Mayhem (Australia) (DVD title)

Runtime:

114 min (Hamptons Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Germany:18 | Australia:MA

Company:

Filmacres

Movie Connections:

References The Lion King (1994)

Something of a hotch potch

What struck me was the remarkable similarity of Fred McArthur-who played animator Tom Kempton-to Gene Kelly both in looks and voice. Its a typical film of today's horror genre where everything is thrown in and you get the impression they never knew how to end it. The cannibal theme was quite interesting but rather pointless as we only saw a pair of women who talked about it.Kemton,by this time tied to a wheelchair and pleading to be set free,suddenly found himself minus a finger as one of the mad sisters chopped it off.Later when he was rescued by his snowmmobiling buddies who'd gone ahead of him,the finger was "reattached" with sticking plaster though you had to assume he later went to a hospital. Placing Kempton there in the first place was the stock plot of going to the house for help after he crashed his machine Here though is where the story began to go haywire as the animator makes a film based on the mad sisters-he'd previously promised to put them in the movies if they let him go!! Next up comes a meeting with a woman who turns out to be the adopted daughter of the youngest sister-she agrees to be a model for Kempton's next production.She in turn has a son who gives insanity a bad meaning and hes suspected of being a serial killer when Kempton discovers a pile of rings presumably trophies kept from his victims. Its not really that frightening when you think of what happens in real life but if you watch this movie don't blink too much or you may lose the plot! The ending was the kind thats been used over and over again-the villains are presumably killed but still keep coming back.we have the landrover which gets bogged down in the mud-as a variation to being unable to start-and you think no way would Gene Kelly have played in a film like this-he would probably have found it difficult keeping up with the plot!