Taboo (2002)

Six young adults struggle with their personal demons while staying at a secluded mansion during a dark and stormy night where a seemingly innocent game of 'taboo' brings out their inter-most secrets which soon leads to murder.

Director:

Max Makowski

Writer:

Chris Fisher

Stars:

Nick Stahl, Eddie Kaye Thomas, January Jones

Cast

Cast overview:
Nick Stahl	...	Christian Turner
Eddie Kaye Thomas	...	Adam
January Jones	...	Elizabeth
Lori Heuring	...	Katie
Derek Hamilton	...	Benjamin
Amber Benson	...	Piper

Storyline

When Christian Turner gathers together his fiancée Elizabeth and their friends Adam, Benjamin, Piper and Katie to celebrate their high-school graduation, they play the cheeky card game 'taboo' which anonymously confides their secret vices to paper. The following year Christian inherits the grand estate and invites them back for New Year's Eve. This time the games are far more serious, but go way weirder then anyone planned, with several unexpected twists.

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Plot Keywords:

taboo | murder | mansion | bed | rainstorm | 

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Taglines:

Would you ever...?

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, sexual content and some violence

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 January 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tabú

Filming Locations:

Romania

Company Credits

Production Co:

Creative Entertainment Group, Imperial Fish Company, Silver Bullet

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

When Katie exits the closet in the game room, the bullet hole on her head is on the right side. In all other scenes it's on the left.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Piper: [reading from a dictionary] "Taboo: A prohibition against touching, saying, or doing something for fear of immediate harm from a supernatural force." That's creepy. And, and I, I don't, I don't really get it.
Elizabeth: Well, the thing about taboos is that society shuns them. But if you really think about it, I mean, there's something very tempting about it. And the game will test whether or not we succumb to the taboo, whatever it might be.
Christian Turner: Such as?
Elizabeth: Such as, would you cheat on your husband or...
[...]

User Reviews

young horror story - neither brilliant, nor abyssal

The story in 'Taboo' lays at the border between teenager horror stories and the close space mystery plots, where the authors gather a small - and decreasing - number of characters into a close enclosure, preferable a castle or a running train, or a cabin in the mountains, under the pretext of a snow storm, or more recently of reality shows rules. In this case, the formula works quite well, and the story has some logic, triggered by a kind of cruel 'truth or deed' game, pushed to its ultimate solution. I saw that many other viewers who cared to comment on IMDb did not like the result, I am wondering why because the film never gets into ridicule, the pace is quite appropriate, and the solution of the plot makes sense. If I am to blame the authors for something, their main sin seems to be to me the fact that they avoided shocking the viewers in any way. The result is that despite having at hand a group of young and talented actors, the film never gets its promise of conflict, sexual, or artistic tension - almost like the film makers were trying to get some prime time rating from American TV parent counseling. I was slightly disappointed, but I am not asking for my money back. 6 out of 10 on my personal scale.