P2 (DVD - 2007)

Most people who have been alone in a parking garage have probably felt vulnerable to an attacker amidst the silence of the cold concrete walls, but what would you do if your assailant were the attendant? That's the question posed by P2, which fits into that sub-genre of thrillers that unfold in one primary location (think Mario Bava's KIDNAPPED, PHONE BOOTH, or WIND CHILL). The script, co-written by Alexandre Aja (THE HILLS HAVE EYES, HIGH TENSION), Franck Khalfoun, and Gregory Levasseur, offers a basic cat-and-mouse tale with a couple of jolts of bone-rattling gore. It's Christmas Eve, and young New York executive Angela (Rachel Nichols) is the last to leave her office before heading to New Jersey for a holiday with the family. Already late, she is dismayed to find that her car won't start. The handsome, seemingly helpful garage attendant, Thomas (Wes Bentley), checks out the car for her, but to no avail. The next thing she knows, Angela wakes up in the garage office in a dress, chained to a chair, with a Christmas dinner laid out before her. Thomas has been watching her for a long time, and with everyone else gone for Christmas, he finally has her alone. Angela will have to fight with everything she has to make it through to Christmas morning.

Under the first-time direction of co-screenwriter Khalfoun, P2 is a solid thriller that delivers ample action, despite being an amped-up two-person stage play. Nichols is an appealing heroine in a physically demanding role, while Bentley's wacko Thomas never veers into cartoonishness. This isn't one for the SAW crowd, though the two brief moments of splatter are certainly of that gross-out caliber. Vintage Christmas songs are also used to strong effect. minimize