P2 refers to 'underground parking level two' in a New York office block. Poor Rachel Nichols (the green chick from Star Trek) leaves work late on Christmas eve and gets kidnapped by car park security guard/nutter Mad Wes Bentley. Cat and mouse antics follow with a little bloodshed to keep us amused.
This one works quite nicely but never really soars like you feel it should. It's produced and co-written by French horror-meister Alexandre Aja and so explores the horror concept, the environment in which Ms Nichols is trapped, and the lead characters to the extent you'd expect from such a talent. The direction is solid too (from Franck Khalfoun), with a style bordering on the Euro-confidence we'd expect from Aja...but not quite.
Nichols aquits herself well, while Wes comes across as a bit of a twat. Take the voice of Joshua Jackson and the face of Tobey Maguire...with the transplanted eyebrows of Jack Nicholson and you have Mr Bentley. Yes he's as sleezy, irritating and disturbed as you'd expect from a stalker loony...but he never really convinces (or scares) as an unhinged wacko. Worth a look.
Because it's set in an office building on Christmas eve you can't help but think that Bruce Willis, all barefeet and vest, will come running to the rescue at some point!
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