| Chain Letter | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Deon Taylor |
| Produced by |
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| Written by |
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| Starring | |
| Music by | Vincent Gillioz |
| Cinematography | Phillip Lee |
| Editing by | James Coblentz |
| Studio | Deon Taylor Enterprises |
| Distributed by | New Films Cinema |
| Release date(s) | September 23, 2010 |
| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3 million[1] |
| Box office | $585,362[2] |
Chain Letter is a 2010 horror film directed by Deon Taylor. It was written by Diana Erwin, Michael J. Pagin, and Deon Taylor. The film is about six friends who are stalked by a murderer that uses chains to kill them if they do not pass on the chain letter.[3]
Contents |
The film opens in a garage with an unconscious young woman having her head wrapped in duct tape and her legs chained to the back of two cars. A man and a woman walk to their cars on their way to work. As the couple start their cars they exit the driveway. The woman in the garage wakes up, frightened; as the man is about to depart, the woman in the car notices the victim, but as she exits her car to warn the man, he drives off.
Neil Conners (Cody Kasch) receives a chain letter from an anonymous person telling him that he is the first person who links the chain, and instructing him to forward it to five people, or else he will die. His sister Rachael (Cherilyn Wilson) then enters his room and forwards the letter, but to only four recipients. Neil then adds his sister to the list and sends it.
Jessica "Jessie" Campbell (Nikki Reed), who is Rachael's best friend, gets the letter and forwards it to five friends; Johnny Jones (Matt Cohen) also receives it but refuses to send it, believing it to be ridiculous. While he is getting a drink of water at the fountain in the gym, a black hooded figure slams his head on the fountain three times and knocks two of his teeth out. Unconscious, he is chained arm-by-arm and leg-by-leg to a gym set and has his bones broken, after which the killer uses the chains to slice his face open, which kills him.
Jessie becomes suspicious as more people start to die. While Rachael is taking a bath, she is attacked in the bathroom by the black hooded figure, who stabs a spear into her head, splitting it open.
Jessie, Neil, and Michael (Michael J. Pagan) must now try to stop the murders. A few days later, Jessie attends Rachael's funeral and is greeted by Detective Jim Crenshaw (Keith David), and he tells her to forward the chain letter to him.
Later on, as more people send Neil the message, he panics and decides to delete all of them in order to be able to confront the killer. The killer, however, is on the roof of Neil's room, and sends a chain smashing through his ceiling. Neil dies a bloody death as he gets dragged up to the roof of his house by chains with various sickles and a hook.
It is revealed that the man behind all the killings was a soldier. During the war, he was tortured by the enemy because he had a government-issued cell phone. He returns to the United States severely disfigured and breaks out of a hospital, disappearing. He starts a cult of "anti-technology" followers who are marked by bar-code tattoos.
As the film closes, the woman chained to the cars in the beginning is revealed to be Jessie, who is killed because she sent the chain letter to Detective Jim Crenshaw without sending it to four other people. Michael tries to save her, but is too late; when her father pulls out of the driveway, Jessie is ripped apart.
As the film ends, Detective Jim Crenshaw is shown chained to a table while the killer is making chains.
The film was directed by Deon Taylor and co-written by Diana Erwin and Michael J. Pagan.[4] It stars Nikki Reed, Keith David, Brad Dourif, Betsy Russell, and Bai Ling.[5] Roxanne Avent, Nesim Hason, and Todd Slater produced for Deon Taylor Enterprises.[6]
Filming took place in El Dorado Hills, Hood, and Placerville in California, USA.[7]
The limited theatrical release was on October 1, 2010,[8] with screenings in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Detroit, and Atlanta.[9] The film was released in American cinemas on October 1, 2010.[10]
The film currently has a 27% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and critics branded it as a poor film.[11]