Chain Letter (2010)

A maniac murders teens when they refuse to forward chain mail.

Director:

Deon Taylor

Writers:

Diana Erwin, Michael J. Pagan,

Stars:

Madison Bauer, Nikki Reed, Brad Dourif

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Madison Bauer	...	Jane Campbell
Mark S. Allen	...	TV Announcer
Phil Austin	...	Philip Campbell
Nikki Reed	...	Jessie Campbell
Michael Bailey Smith	...	Chain Man
Michael J. Pagan	...	Michael Grant
Matt Cohen	...	Johnny Jones
David Zahedian	...	Brad
Cherilyn Wilson	...	Rachael Conners
Cody Kasch	...	Neil Conners
Noah Segan	...	Dante
Brad Dourif	...	Mr. Smirker
Roshni Shukla	...	Emo Girl
Eliot Benjamin	...	Kevin
Betsy Russell	...	Sergeant Hamill

Storyline

A maniac murders teens when they refuse to forward chain mail.

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Plot Keywords:

chain | sms | mask

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Taglines:

If you don't forward it, you die

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong bloody sadistic violence throughout, language and brief nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 November 2010 (Russia)

Also Known As:

A Corrente do Mal

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$143,000 (USA) (2 October 2010)

Gross:

$143,000 (USA) (2 October 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Deon Taylor Enterprises, Tiger Tail Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Betsy Russell, who plays Sergeant Hamill, was a featured character in the Saw movie franchise. When the character Neil first receives the chain letter, the original 'Saw' is playing on his television in the background.

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Goofs

Detective Crenshaw has just been knocked out by the Chain man and is being drug across the floor. They pass by an empty cabinet/display by the wall and you can see Detective Crenshaw's hand place or move something into the cabinet. A couple of seconds later his hand moves back up to his waist, all while he is unconscious.

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Connections

Features Wii Sports (2006)

User Reviews

Pretty Bad Stuff

I was looking through Red Box the other night when I rented this load of crap. I saw Brad Dourif and Keith David in the credits so I figured it had some merit, wrong. Hey these days torture porn and teen slasher movies are almost passé. Serial killer movies have grown from genre to category next to Drama or Comedy. No one expects too much from any of these genres but this movie manages to out stupid the worst in each of the above genres.

OK, teens get weird chain email threatening death if they don't spam 5 friends with a forward of the email. So real steel chains are literally used to dismember these teenagers if they delete CHAIN letter, get it? It was reminiscent of Hellraiser with all those chains and hooks tearing into bodies but minus the supernatural voodoo that made that movie bearable. First off, there is supposed to be some sort of conspiracy, some Luddite anti technology group that is protesting our loss of privacy via cell phone and internet technology. So why pick 5 random teen agers to kill in a gruesome fashion but with no terrorist demands or media frenzy to promote the cause? In all those teen slasher movies the teens did something or went somewhere they weren't supposed to and the monster had some good reason to kill them, like they just had sex or something. But no real motives here, from a cell of supposed warped Unibomber type geniuses who want to send out a message. Then the conspiracy finds some Leather Face Texas Chainsaw guy to do the actual murders, which makes so much sense. Then, for all the yapping about decreased privacy due to things like cell phone tracking, all the teens were killed right at their homes or in their favorite haunts, that took no technical wizardry past a phone book to track them. Then we have a veteran cop who is supposed to be tracking all this but never once does he call in for any sort of backup as he goes rummaging around empty plant buildings by his lonesome in his town's biggest crime wave investigation.

Finally there is this utterly stupid and gory dismemberment scene that opened and closed the film, literally a repeat. There was no coherent plot and a cheap theme that doesn't even tie the movie together. There was one teen who even forwarded the messages but got wasted anyways as soon as he deleted his copy. It made no sense on so many levels and was simply a cheapest sort of exploitation of an exploitation movie. I also rented & watched "I am No. 4" from Redbox last weekend and that was a turkey too. But at least that one had a coherent if silly and derivative plot.