A teenage girl is walking through the house late at night when she opens the door to her parent's room. Her mother and father are both tied to the bed and a masked psychopath grabs her from behind. She is asked to choose which one of her parents would die. She refuses to decide and soon a gun is being held at the head of her younger brother forcing her to make the decision. As she blurts her choice, she is horrified to learn that her decision does not end there – now she must take the knife and the kill the parent she elected. This is the opening scene of the new horror film Choose, and it is an opening that definitely grabs your attention.
Flash forward and we are introduced to journalist student Fiona Wagner (Katheryn Winnick). Fiona's father Tom (Kevin Pollack) is the Sheriff which will come in handy when the psycho continues his Jigsaw killer type antics and picks seemingly random strangers and forces them into choices that are all lose-lost propositions. Makes for good copy.
Like the concert pianist that is given the option of losing his hearing or losing his fingers. A drill to the ears or an axe to the hand. Tough choice indeed.
Things get more complicated when the murderer contacts Fiona and digs up the history of her dead mother than committed suicide. Could her mother have been the victim of the killer and offered a chance to kill herself to possibly save another? And just how does Fiona and Tom fit into the killers master plans? Choose is like Saw-lite. It takes an elaborate plan of choice determining demise and twists it into a serial killer thriller that mildly entertains while concluding in an overblown and elaborate climax that is typical of uninspired films of this ilk.
But whereas Saw was able to construct a franchise out of the Jigsaw killer, Choose will simply go down as an average horror film. One that had more potential than realization and less gore than might have been required to leave an indelible mark.
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