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Tell Tale (2009)
"Tell-Tale" (original title)

5.3
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Ratings: 5.3/10 from 3,032 users  
Reviews: 22 user | 35 critic

A man's newly transplanted heart leads him on a dangerous journey to find out who murdered its donor.

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(screenplay), (short story "The Tell-Tale Heart")
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Title: Tell Tale (2009)

Tell Tale (2009) on IMDb 5.3/10

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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
Terry Bernard
...
Elizabeth Clemson
...
Phillip Van Doren
...
Angela Bernard
...
Kevin Stanovich
...
Acherton
...
Bernard Cochius
...
Legethon
...
Doctor Lethe
...
The Surgeon
...
Frances Vieillard
Peg Holzemer ...
Elderly Woman In Wheelchair (as Peg Saurman Holzemer)
Scott Winters ...
Doctor Averman
Kara Lund ...
Nurse
John Timothy Botka ...
Police Officer
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Storyline

In Providence, a husband and wife die in a botched robbery; we see flickers of his last memories. His heart goes to Terry Bernard, a single father raising a girl with a rare degenerative disease. After the operation, Terry has flashes of memory from the last moments of the dead donor's life. Then, he recognizes one of the donor's killers and follows him into an alley. Within days, Terry becomes an unwilling avenger, with a police detective on his trail. Meanwhile, he begins a romance with his daughter's doctor, his moods complicated by memory flashes, the donor's deepening presence in both Terry's mind and body, and the unexplained bond among the donor's killers. Can this end well? Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Taglines:

The pieces are coming together. His life is falling apart. See more »


Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violent content, language and a scene of sexuality | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
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Details

Official Sites:

Country:

|

Language:

Release Date:

31 December 2009 (Greece)  »

Also Known As:

Tell Tale  »

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

(FotoKem)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1
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Did You Know?

Goofs

When lead character meets Acherton in bathroom his name-tag says Michael Acherton after he is called the detective refers to him as Paul Acherton. See more »

Quotes

[first lines]
Paramedic: [over radio] Dispatch this is Rescue 3. I have a 55 year old white male named Lyar, John. He has massive blunt trauma to the skull. Glasgow Coma Score is 1, Henry 3. Patient has ID in his wallet identifying him as an organ donor. Alert trauma and transport team.
Dispatcher: Copy that.
See more »

Soundtracks

"The Torture"
Written by Leslie Stevens
Performed by Leslie and the Badgers
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User Reviews

 
Allegedly based on the Poe short story.
19 December 2012 | by (New York) – See all my reviews

The plot: a man receives a heart transplant, only to find himself forced by the donor's spirit to avenge the donor's brutal murder.

Let's be honest here. Once you find out that a person in a horror movie has had a transplant, there's only two possible ways it can go: 1) He turns into a serial killer or 2) He's forced to solve the mystery / avenge the death of the donor. That's it. Those are the only two possible plots allowed by hack screen writing convention. Sometimes, if you're Asian, you're allowed to see ghosts, but that's an Asian-only power.

Now, I could be wrong, but I don't remember anyone going on a rampage of vengeance in The Tell-Tale Heart. In fact, as I recall, it's purely a tale of psychological horror. Tell Tale, on the other hand, is pretty much a Death Wish ripoff, with a few cheesy elements of Body Parts grafted on. There's also some filler side-stories involving a romance, a disabled daughter, and a dogged cop.

Tell-Tale isn't all bad. It's actually fairly enjoyable, if you're willing to overlook the more clichéd, derivative elements and focus on what does work. In the end, it's basically just violent exploitation. If you're looking for something more than that, then I don't think you'll like Tell Tale very much. It has moments where it rises above that, but then it abandons them and sinks right back down again. As other reviewers have noted, it can be frustrating seeing the movie that could have been.


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