Cornered! (2008) User Reviews

Cornered in boredom!

[Stevieboy666 · 3/10 · 26 December 2017]

Five people play poker after hours in the upstairs of a liquor store, only to be picked off one by one by a serial killer. Much of the first half is centred around this game, frankly very boring. The acting isn't great, especially Duval as the heroin addict going cold turkey. The temptation to hit the FFWD button was great. Once the killing starts there is an attempt, with some success, to substitute gore for tension. Many slasher fans will feel short changed however, with only one killing near the end producing the gory goods. I guess making a film in pretty much a single location takes skill, so credit to them for trying. Could've been better, I'd pretty much lost interest after the first half.

Unpleasant and Stupid Low-Budget Film with Fake Reviews

[claudio_carvalho · 3/10 · 29 July 2011]

In Los Angeles, a serial-killer with unknown identity is slaughtering clients in convenience stores. The steals the surveillance tapes and the police department has offered a US$ 500,000.00 reward for him.

In a trashy convenience store, the owner Steve (Eduardo Antonio Garcia), his clients Mona (Ellia English) that works with phone sex and the whore Jess (Elizabeth Nicole), his employee Donny Donut (Peter Story) and his junky nephew Jimmy (James Duval) discuss with the carrier Morty (Steve Guttenberg) what they would do with the serial-killer if they capture him.

Morty goes away and Steve invites the group to play a poker game, with Jimmy is affected by the forced abstinence. Out of the blue, they are attacked by a masked killer during a night of terror.

"Cornered!" is an unpleasant and stupid low-budget film with fake reviews promoting it. The uninteresting and dull story has lowlife characters and never holds the attention of the viewer. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Brutal! A Face do Demônio" ("Brutal! – The Face of the Demon")

Liquor will kill you

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 14 February 2010]

I sat down to watch this movie with no particular hopes, a horror movie with Steve Gutenberg?

Well, the movie actually turned out to be quite alright, not overly scary, but it had its moments of thrills and suspense.

The characters in the movie were particularly colorful and hilarious. Lots of different addictions going on there. A junkie going cold turkey and having a phobia of bugs, a sexphone operator addicted to ice cream, a liquor store owner addicted to alcohol, a guy addicted to donuts, and a woman smoking way too many cigarettes. All of these quirky characters came together in a good wholesome story. The dialogue was good and funny.

The concept of being locked inside a liquor store with a killer prowling you was something new. Never seen that scenario being used before.

Sadly this is one of those movies that are very predictable. You will figure out the plot and the ending well ahead of time. But the movie is still worth watching, because you want to see what happens to the quirky characters.

I found the movie to be alright. Not a movie you will watch a second time though. And despite it being a horror movie, it doesn't deliver any major frights.

Disappointing Horror Flick

[Michael_Elliott · 2 October 2011]

Cornered! (2009)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Pretty bad slasher flick about a serial killer stalking convenient stores in Los Angeles. A store owner and his friends sit down to have a poker game after hours one night and sure enough, the killer shows up and starts to pick them off one by one. There are countless direct-to-DVD horror releases out there so you have to pick them with caution but I decided to give this one a go since Steve Guttenberg has a small part. I'm sure those who grew up watching POLICE ACADEMY wondered what he was up to in his recent movies and this here was my shot of seeing him again but it frankly wasn't worth the trouble. This screenplay is without question one of the strangest I've seen because it features a lot of bums and the reason for this is beyond me. We have the store owner who is obviously a cheap, rude jerk. We have his nephew who runs the cash register and just happens to be a meth head. We've got a prostitute trying to pick up some extra cash. We have one lady who works as a phone sex operator. We even have an overweight guy hooked on donuts. Umm....what the hell? Have we really gotten to the point in horror films where one of the characters needs to be addicted to donuts? I'm not sure if this was meant to be part of the humor but the laughs certainly never work and this is painfully obvious in a scene early one where another bum, this time a homeless man, tries to steal some alcohol. I'm really not sure what the point of this comedy was but it certainly doesn't work but then again neither does the horror or mystery aspects. The killer was rather obvious within the first five minutes so the entire mystery gets flushed right down the toilet. With the comedy and mystery gone you'd think we'd at least get some gory deaths, right? Well, wrong. The violence for the most part is rather tame and the bloodiest scene is actually a quick edit to part of a jelly donut dripping onto a table. The performances in the film were fair and that includes Guttenberg who at least proves he still has some nice comic timing. With that said, CORNERED! is a low-budget slasher film that doesn't work on any level and should certainly be skipped.

Steve Guttenburg has a small role as the beer delivery guy

[jordondave-28085 · 1/10 · 8 May 2023]

(2008) Cornered!

HORROR

Co-produced, co- written and directed by Daniel Maze directing a rather low budget, straight to rental crap, about a convenience store owner, getting together with friends and co-workers to play a game of poker located on the room above the store itself, unaware that theirs a serial killer in the midst. If people were to watch enough slasher films, the twist toward the end becomes to be not that much of a twist. As a matter of fact it's totally stupid. And the actor Steve Guttenberg of several movies including "Police Academy" and "Short Circuit" also stars as the beer delivery guy. Bomb.

Cornered!

[Scarecrow-88 · 4/10 · 10 September 2010]

Workers and patrons at a small, cruddy(cockroaches appear from time to time) liquor store in Los Angeles discuss how they would execute a notorious serial killer on the loose in the area not knowing he's in the midst of them listening! When a wino goes through the front store window attempting to free himself(with a bottle of stolen liquor in hand), the janitor seals up the door with planks of wood cutting off one particular entrance/exit. While participating in games of poker, what this group(which includes owner Steve(Eduardo Antonio Garcia), his methadone-addicted junkie nephew, Jimmy(James Duval), a rotund sex hotline operator, Mona(Ellia English), a donut-eating weakling janitor, Donny(Peter Story), and a hot scantily clad prostitute, Jess(Elizabeth Nicole))doesn't expect is for the psychopath to show back up in the store, awaiting each one of them curious enough to see what that noise was downstairs(Steve's apartment is up above the store where he secretly hides VCRs recording from security cameras set up in and around his place).

Steve Guttenberg in a slasher movie will obviously draw some to see this movie, but he's more of a special guest star than the male lead the credits depict him as. His deliveryman, Morty, seems to be a likable chap, and, while his presence is limited, he factors in the grand reveal of the killer at the very end. Weapons of use on victims involve an ice cream cone(which gouges an eye!), cellophane(accompanied by a broken bottle of ketchup used to stab this person repeatedly), a meat slicer(which cuts one poor soul in half as he's hanging upside down by meat hooks), and, probably the best sequence, a meat cleaver(effective in how we see the victim's eyes cross as life leaves her body). While the violence sounds severe, the filmmakers don't dwell on the details so those that might squirm at meat slicer damage will be relieved to know that most occurs in a tame fashion. A detriment for many slasher fans, I imagine, is the time between one kill to the next. You'd think that when one member of the group hadn't returned that they would all venture downstairs to see what was keeping her, but CORNERED! is about getting one person alone with the killer at a time so he can do his work. Nicole is definite eye candy in her short jean skirt and tight shirt above her navel, her boobs almost spilling out on more than one occasion. Garcia's Steve is supposed to be a sort of sympathetic character in that he wants his nephew to kick his habit so he can stay clean and out of rehab, but he's also a lousy drunk who steadily became tiresome for me personally. Duval(THE DOOM GENERATION) fans will get a kick out his hallucinating junkie, the way he envisions these large roaches not allowing him to leave the store..his Jimmy stays worse-for-wear almost the entire movie. Director Maze(he gives himself some love by putting his name on a six pack of beer Steve gulps unmercifully throughout)localizes the plot almost exclusively in the liquor store(which also functions as a grocery where many customers kidnap snacks and alcohol much to Steve's dismay). The killer wears a gimp mask(with a zipper mouth)and leather gloves as he attacks his victims. This is the kind of slasher which will have many yelling at the screen to "Don't do that! Don't go down there!"

Slasher with Unrealized Potential

[Reviews_of_the_Dead · 5/10 · 18 May 2019]

This was another film that I added to my Netflix list back in college and just now got around to seeing it. I thought the look of the cover was good and was interested to see what this film was all about. I pretty much came in blind, which is one of my preferred ways of coming in if you know me. The synopsis is during their nightly poker game, a group of lowlifes are terrorized in their own convenience store by a masked killer.

We start this one off learning about a serial killer who attacks convenience stores. We know that he takes the security footage and that he has done this quite a few times. There are no real leads and the reward is now up to half a million dollars to catch this guy.

It then shifts to a crappy convenience store that is owned by Steve (Eduardo Antonio Garcia). He sits upstairs watching the security cameras and keeps track of items that his regulars take to dock them. He is also trying to sell the place as it is struggling.

Running the front desk is a junkie Jimmy (James Duval). He is actually the nephew of Steve and he supposedly just returned from a trip to Hawaii. Another worker is Donny (Peter Story). He has a weight problem and they call him Donny Doughnut. A banned customer comes into the story and there is a tussle when we see he's trying to steal a bottle of alcohol. This causes him and Donny to go through the door, shattering the glass.

Outside we meet Jess (Liz Nicole Abrams), who is a local prostitute that Donny has a thing for. Also hanging out at the story is Mona who uses her cellphone as a sex line. A delivery man shows up, Morty (Steve Guttenbeg). This group talks about what they'd do if came in contact with the killer. There's a man listening to them a couple aisles away and he knocks over stuff and runs out the backdoor.

That night they go up to play poker. The regulars are Jimmy, Donny, Steve and Mona. Donny convinces Jess to play and Jimmy needs a fix, but his uncle throws his phone out the window. Things take quite a turn when the killer shows up and picks off those upstairs in some interesting ways.

Now I do have to say, this is an interesting slasher. The film doesn't really state that if all of the convenience stores this killer hits are full of some unlikeable characters or not, but I do like the idea of blurring the lines of who you should root for. I do want to say that not all of them are horrible, but they aren't pristine by any stretch.

With that out of the way, I actually liked the angle of who the killer was. I did find it a bit predictable. I thought I might have been wrong for all of 15 seconds before the film ends up confirming it, so that does hurt the film for me a bit. I also thought it was creative how the deaths were done. I don't really want to spoil it, but I will say they are interesting for a slasher film in my opinion.

The film though does have its flaws. Being that the poker game is upstairs from the store, we actually have a way to keep them safe until a few of them are killed off. The film though is a bit boring unfortunately. In a film like this, the characters aren't interesting enough to keep the kills off as long as they do. There are quite a few deaths in the film, which I liked. The characters are distinct, but they just aren't people that I cared enough for. I think that actually helps make films like this more impactful. I did find the ending to be interesting a bit out of the norm I would say as well.

Moving to the acting of the film, I didn't think it was bad. Guttenberg plays such a quirky character, which he made his hay doing back in the 80's. He isn't in the film all that much though. Duval I thought was good as the junkie. He just has that look about him and I actually felt bad. He is going through withdrawals and his uncle is pretty mean to him. He does have an interesting turn in his character. Abrams I found to be attractive. She is one I felt bad for in that she feels all she can do to make ends meet is prostitution. She was fine in her portrayal though. Story was fine, but he got on my nerves. I personally bored and nervous eat, but I don't think he would do as much with the love of his life there. He was fine outside of that. Garcia is such a jerk I liked his fate. English is interesting in her job, but I think it was a joke they played out too much. The rest of the cast I thought was fine and rounded out the film for what was needed.

Something that really surprised me with this one was the effects of the film. They actually did some that were quite interesting, which I liked. Going even farther though, they looked to be done practical. The blood looked good to me as well as the rest of the gore. A slasher film like this really needs to showcase this, as they normally lack in the story and I do think they did well here. The film was shot fine also.

Now with that said, I did find this film to be entertaining, but it does have quite a bit of issues. I think that there is an interesting concept to it. The problem with going with a cast of somewhat unlikeable characters is that I don't really care what happens to them. The story isn't good enough to take as long to get into the killings as it did. I like the reveal of the killer, but I'm not a fan that I guessed it pretty early on. I did like his look though which I thought was good. The acting was fine. The effects to be honest were above average and it was shot well. The soundtrack of the film didn't stand out or hurt the film. I think overall I'm coming in that this film was average, which is a shame, because with a few tweaks it could be good.

The grocery slasher: He'll make all your wishes come true

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 27 December 2015]

****SPOILERS**** Talking over the news about the latest crime committed by the bodega/grocery killer with the local friendly delivery man Morty, Steve Guttenburg, bodega owner Steve, Antonio Garcia, and his friends talked about capturing him for the $500,000.00 reward money and what they'd do to him before the police arrived. It just happened that the killer was targeting Steve's bodega that night and planning to kill everyone there. It all, the killings, started when the masked killer knocked off the homeless vagrant, who lifted a bottle of cheap wine from the place, T. J, Rolando Bpoyce, just to keep in practice for the big upcoming event he planned that night.

With Steve having his weekly poker game with friends the killer slowly knocked them off one at a time using the very methods that they said they would use on the killer if they caught him. With all the poker player murdered including Steve it was now up to the two survivors the sexy Jess & and the dough-nut eating and beer drinking Donny, Elizabeth Nicole & Peter Story,to get help before he finishes them off as well.

***SPOILERS***Trying to get help all of a sudden Morty shows up with his daily beer delivery but instead of getting help he decides to catch the killer all by himself and get the 500 G's reward money that he can use for his retirement planning. With both Jess & Donny locked in the store and Morty the delivery man trying to be a hero in capturing the killer it soon becomes very apparent who the killer really is! That to the total shock of Jess who ended up losing her head and Donny who ended up getting stuffed with his, before his stomach burst, last dough-nut.

He's killing us in the ways we said we'd kill him!!

[selfdestructo · 4/10 · 5 May 2023]

Cornered! Treats slasher fans like they're morons.

First off, whoever authored this DVD does not know movies. There's a trailer for THIS VERY movie in the previews. Spoiler alert! You don't put the trailer for the movie you're about to watch right before the movie.

A bunch of misfits barricade themselves up in a store with a serial killer on the loose.

The only thing good about this movie is the killer's methods (and the twist on how he obtains this information). This filmmaker has chosen to spell it out for you, not once (once would be too much), but TWICE! The Dumb Decision trope is in full effect in this one, and I think it costs every last character their lives.

Ok, every horror movie has a skeptic. They play the skeptic trope to the Nth degree with Steve, the store owner. He's not just skeptical, he's 100% CLUELESS. You'd think this was a parody, but I'm pretty sure this is a straight-up slasher (even with the presence of Steve Guttenberg). People say alarming things to him, and he just mumbles to himself. He follows a blood trail to the basement that he is convinced is a prank done with ketchup. Two survivors find the keys to leave the store, and... the way this all plays out is too ridiculous to even go into. You can watch it for yourself if you have a masochistic streak. I don't know how much dumber Daniel Maze and Darrin Grimwood could have written these characters.

Yeah, Steve Guttenberg appears at the beginning and the end of this movie. So, if anyone needs their Police Academy fix.

Curses like chickens...

[Abominog · 7/10 · 7 February 2010]

I found quite enjoyable this little horror opus about a ruthless serial killer wrecking havoc on a bunch of misfits trapped inside a convenience store.

If not at all a masterpiece and neither entirely original, unlike the majority of recent entries to the horror genre that seem to be annoyingly cloning one another, this one was pretty well made, with credible performances (both comic and downright dramatic) from mostly lesser known cast, good camera work and skillful directing.

Honestly, the horror aspect of the film was not especially gripping and not that innovative. Gore hounds will hardly be seriously engaged, despite several creepy moments and some fleeting and usually underlit scenes of violence.

What impressed me most of all were the cohesive team work, colorful and likable characters, often sharp and amusing dialogs.

Well that wasn't my main point. Here comes a serious spoiler.

Sadly, this one might yet have become an edge-of-your-seat thriller unless a substantial (hopefully unintentional) strategic lapse of the creators.

I doubt they have deliberately made obvious the identity of the malefactor. But an astute and observant viewer, somewhere in the midst of the mayhem, would definitely recall the order of opening credits and say to himself: "Wait a minute, where the heck is..?". So this wannabe unexpected little twist towards the end turns out to be a blank shot if not a pure disappointment.

Good for the casting director, at least, not to suggest Brad Greenquist for the leading role.

Anyway, regardless of some flaws and drawbacks "Cornered!' is still a respectable effort. One and a half hour slipped away like fifteen minutes, and I never regret watching this cool stuff.

Entertaining!

[mark45455 · 9/10 · 28 March 2011]

If you like thrillers/slasher films, you'll probably enjoy Cornered! Set in a single location, a liquor store besieged by a notorious serial killer, the film follows several employees as they play poker after hours. Among the characters is a drunk, a hallucinating drug addict, a phone sex worker, a fat guy who can't resist donuts, and a hooker. The movie does a lot of character exploration, but still manages to kill them off in succession, including some cool scenes in which they're killed in the way that they said they wanted to kill the killer. Steve Guttenberg is back, and I couldn't be happier to see him in something like this, a completely different film that we don't often see him do. The film is slow to build suspense but it keeps it going steadily until the end. I'm a big fan of masked killers, and I wish we saw more of this main character, but by no means was he completely absent. The ending suggests a sequel, and I hope we get to see one that's as entertaining as this original.

Not a Bad Little Film

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 13 August 2013]

During their nightly poker game a group of lowlifes are terrorized in their own convenience store by a masked killer.

The highlight of this film was obviously James Duval as Jimmy, who is going through heroin withdrawal. He puts on perhaps the best performance of his career. Although I learned to love him in the films of Gregg Araki and in "May", he seems to be starting a second -- even better -- phase of his acting, as seen here and in "Sushi Girl".

While there is little else here that is all that memorable, and some moments seem a bit clichéd or hackneyed, it is not a bad little film. Certainly better than the average lower budget horror film. And it is great to see Steve Guttenberg, a wonderful actor whose time is not yet over.

Surprisingly Enjoyable Slasher

[mattressman_pdl · 22 August 2011]

Being a hardened, jaded horror buff this reviewer was tired of seeing a bunch of clichéd, attractive teens with the personality of a thrift store being killed over and over by the same kind of stalker. Along came Cornered! and I must say that I'm glad that I didn't listen to all the negative feedback on this site.

A group of real people are trapped in a liquor store after a killer breaks in and begins stalking them. This killer has an odd penchant for murdering convenience store clerks and the like before stealing the security footage and watching his own handy work.

The pace is what scared a lot of people off and it does tend to be a little slower than one would hope for. But it's just a minor complaint as the rest of the cast performs quite well, the villain is interesting, and it held my attention for eighty-two minutes. And wasn't it nice to see Steve Guttenberg again?

took a while before things get going

[trashgang · 6/10 · 23 January 2011]

This flick was made by first-time director Daniel Moerenhout but is better known in his country and into the music scene as Daniel Maze. The man surely knows what he want, he had a one hit wonder with Scoop in 1999 and made his first so-called flick when he was eleven. One way or another he managed to make his first Hollywood flick. But you really need a teaser to promote your flick so he found Steve Guttenberg of the Police Academy fame. And I must admit, he still has it, he was believable even as the Police Academy wasn't my cup of tea. The others were luckily believable too. I enjoyed the movie but it has a few let downs. First of all, some killings are a bit lame, secondly, it take a while before the movie really starts. You really have to wait almost an hour. Before that you will have a lot of talking, dirty talk and bad manners. Of course there is a bit of black humor mixed in it but not everybody will notice that. Just look at the flying donut... After 30 minutes you will get murder number one but that was really a lame one, combined with again the black humor (the ice cream cones). Somehow it reminded me a bit of The Intruder, the storyline I mean. But after a hour the red stuff starts to flow, some killings become really nasty and one killing is really worth watching, a slo-mo and close up of a victim's slicing. Nice to see. Luckily as a slow builder you get what you are waiting for. It has an open ending but I guess they won't franchise it. The killer itself, well, his mask did remind me of the 80's slasher Blackout and the more unknown Zipperface. Nice flick but you will have to wait to get cornered.

Guttenberg - moving away from his typecasting...

[sarah45101 · 8/10 · 25 March 2011]

The most effective scenes in this film come when it focuses on a single character, such as James Duval's Jimmy, who is hallucinating from heroin withdrawals. Steve Guttenberg, who is only in about twenty minutes of the film, also delivers some convincing lines, moving away from his typecasting as the goofy guy. He's solid here, especially in the last ten minutes. The film stays away from blood and gore, opting instead for the psychological punch. What's most interesting is the things we don't see, like the outside world, which doesn't exist here. The film is entirely focused on a single store, shunning the outside world. It's like the director wants us to be confined, along with the cast, in a single room, so that we may also experience their terror and confusion.

Fun, entertaining and highly enjoyable

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 7/10 · 17 September 2012]

While gathering together for a card game in their convenience store, a group of friends find themselves the latest victims of a serial killer's rampage against similar employees in town and race to escape before they all succumb to his fury.

This one turned out to be quite exciting and enjoyable. Well, supposedly this was going to be a hybrid slasher/comedy but instead, it didn't really do either all that well and still came away rather enjoyable. The comedy elements are the biggest miscues, being not at all funny and really just lame that tend to make the film far longer than it really should be because the middle section is just so boring and dull that not a whole lot really registers. Once they come aware of their being stalked and hunted, it turns into a rather enjoyable affair with some big suspense scenes set within a location that really doesn't set itself up as being capable of doing so, and a rather nice twist that allows for some brutal kills to come along. While the killer isn't that threatening and it does have some other flaws, this one does become a lot more watchable as it goes along.

Rated R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence

A lot of overacting, but still fun

[wwechase · 6/10 · 7 January 2017]

I really enjoy this movie! I was searching for this movie for years because I caught the second to last kill while watching TV one day I HAD to find it. But I couldn't find anything for a long time.

BUT. When I did see it? I had to watch the whole thing. The acting is pretty decent, although there are a couple bad moments in the film and a lot of the main characters over-deliver their point. However, I'm just fine watching this movie cos the effects are decent, it doesn't drag on too long and I really actually like this.

No where near the best movie ever, but even for a low budget film, I still give it 6 stars out of 10

Engaging thriller

[adams45451936 · 8/10 · 28 March 2011]

It's been a while since I've seen such an engrossing and engaging thriller. This is a great, slow burning film about a group of people stuck in a liquor store. I'm glad to see Steve Guttenberg back on the screen, and in a different character than usual (he's a bit nasty here), and his scenes really move the film forward and give it some heft. I also have to mention James Duvall, who is awesome here as a hallucinating drug addict. There are some cool scenes here, but this isn't Hostel, by any means, so it has less gore and more suspense. The story focuses more on the individual characters to let us into their world. The claustrophobic single room setting really sets the mood for the entire movie, and when the characters lock themselves in, it only gets more interesting. If you like slasher films and suspense, this is definitely the film for you. Give it a chance. Forget anything else you saw this year and go get Cornered! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.