''Chain Letter'' is a 2010 American
slasher film
A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic ...
directed by
Deon Taylor
Deon Taylor is an American filmmaker, known for his work in horror and thriller films. He is the founder of Hidden Empire Film Group.
Life
Taylor was born in Chicago and grew up in Gary, Indiana. During high school, he with his brother and mot ...
. It was written by Diana Erwin,
Michael J. Pagan
Michael Jamon Pagan (born January 12, 1985) is an American actor and screenwriter. Pagan is best known for appearing in ''How Stella Got Her Groove Back'' (1998), where he received an NAACP Image Award nomination and the Disney Channel Original M ...
, and Deon Taylor. The film is about six friends who are stalked by a murderer who uses chains to kill them if they do not pass on the chain letter to five other people.
Plot
The film opens in a garage, with an unconscious teenage girl having her head wrapped in duct tape and her legs chained to the back of two cars. A man and woman walk to the cars and start to drive off, dragging the victim along the ground. The cars are about to take different turns at the end of the driveway when the woman notices the victim, but before she can warn the man, he drives off.
Neil Conners (
Cody Kasch
Cody Reed Kasch (born August 21, 1987) is an American actor. He is known for his role of Zach Young on the ABC comedy-drama series ''Desperate Housewives''.
Early life
Kasch was born in Santa Monica, California. He is of Scottish descent. He ...
) receives an anonymous
chain letter
A chain letter is a message that attempts to convince the recipient to make a number of copies and pass them on to a certain number of recipients. The "chain" is an exponentially growing pyramid (a tree graph) that cannot be sustained indefini ...
via email, telling him that he is the first person who links the chain and he must send it on to five people or else he will die. His sister Rachel (Cherilyn Wilson) forwards the letter but to only four recipients. Neil then adds his sister to the list and sends it, to complete the five.
Rachel's best friend, Jessica "Jessie" Campbell (
Nikki Reed
Nikki Reed is an American former actress and entrepreneur best known for her role as Rosalie Hale in ''The Twilight Saga (film series), The Twilight Saga'' (2008–12). Reed rose to prominence when she co-wrote and starred in the psychological ...
), receives the email and also forwards it to five friends, whilst Johnny Jones (
Matt Cohen) also receives it but refuses to send it, believing it to be ridiculous. He goes to the gym where he is knocked unconscious by a black-hooded figure. He is then chained by his arms to a gym set, his ankles are cut across and the chains wrapped round his face, killing him.
While taking a bath, Rachel becomes suspicious of a possible intruder inside the house. She investigates and is attacked by the killer who whips her with a chain several times as she runs through the house to escape. Re-entering the bathroom, she locks the door and looks for a weapon, before placing her face against the door to listen. She realises the killer is on the other side doing exactly the same thing and a few seconds later, he breaks through a side wall into the bathroom and kills her by hitting her on the head with the cistern lid.
Outside the house, Jessie is greeted by Detective Jim Crenshaw (
Keith David
Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956) is an American actor. He is known for his deep voice and screen presence in over 300 roles in film, stage, television, and interactive media.
He has starred in such films as '' The Thing'' (1982), ''Pla ...
), who tells her to forward the chain letter to him. Jessie figures out they are being spied on using a
virus embedded in the chain letter so she tells Neil and Michael (
Michael J. Pagan
Michael Jamon Pagan (born January 12, 1985) is an American actor and screenwriter. Pagan is best known for appearing in ''How Stella Got Her Groove Back'' (1998), where he received an NAACP Image Award nomination and the Disney Channel Original M ...
) to get new e-mail addresses and phone numbers, as she believes this will stop the murders. Later on, as more people send Neil the message, he panics and decides to delete all of them. He wants to confront the killer, who turns out to be on the roof of Neil's room, dragging him up onto the roof of the house by a hook attached to a long chain, killing him.
The next day, it is revealed that the teen girl chained to the cars at the beginning of the film is in fact Jessie, who is killed because she sent the chain letter to Detective Crenshaw without sending it to four other people. Michael tries to save her but is too late and when her father pulls out of the driveway, Jessie is ripped apart.
As the film ends, Detective Crenshaw is shown shackled to a table while the killer makes chains nearby.
Cast
*
Nikki Reed
Nikki Reed is an American former actress and entrepreneur best known for her role as Rosalie Hale in ''The Twilight Saga (film series), The Twilight Saga'' (2008–12). Reed rose to prominence when she co-wrote and starred in the psychological ...
as Jessica "Jessie" Campbell
*
Keith David
Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956) is an American actor. He is known for his deep voice and screen presence in over 300 roles in film, stage, television, and interactive media.
He has starred in such films as '' The Thing'' (1982), ''Pla ...
as Detective Jim Crenshaw
*
Brad Dourif
Bradford Claude Dourif (; born March 18, 1950) is an American actor. He is known for voicing Chucky in the ''Child's Play'' franchise (1988–present), portraying Gríma Wormtongue in ''The Lord of the Rings'' film series, and his Academy A ...
as Mr. Smirker
*
Betsy Russell
Betsy Russell (born Elizabeth Russell; September 6, 1963) is an American actress who is best known for her roles in ''Private School'' (1983), '' Tomboy'' (1985), and as Jill Tuck, one of the primary characters of the ''Saw'' film series from ...
as Sergeant Hamill
*
Cody Kasch
Cody Reed Kasch (born August 21, 1987) is an American actor. He is known for his role of Zach Young on the ABC comedy-drama series ''Desperate Housewives''.
Early life
Kasch was born in Santa Monica, California. He is of Scottish descent. He ...
as Neil Conners
* Cherilyn Wilson as Rachel Conners
*
Michael J. Pagan
Michael Jamon Pagan (born January 12, 1985) is an American actor and screenwriter. Pagan is best known for appearing in ''How Stella Got Her Groove Back'' (1998), where he received an NAACP Image Award nomination and the Disney Channel Original M ...
as Michael Grant
*
Noah Segan
Noah Segan is an American actor. He is best known for his work in the films of Rian Johnson (''Looper (film), Looper'', ''Brick (film), Brick'', ''Knives Out'') as well as his appearance in ''Deadgirl''.
Early life
Segan is the grandson of Amer ...
as Dante
* David Zahedian as Brad
*
Matt Cohen as Johnny Jones
*
Patrick St. Esprit
Patrick St. Esprit (born May 18, 1954) is an American character actor, best known for playing tough, authoritative roles such as Romulus Thread in ''The Hunger Games: Catching Fire'', Elliot Oswald in ''Sons of Anarchy'' and Los Angeles Police De ...
as Dean Jones
* Kate Enggren as Debra Jones
*
Terrence Evans
Terrence Howard Evans (June 21, 1934 – August 7, 2015) was an American film and stage actor. His parents met on the while coming to America from Britain in 1929.
Career
Between 1957 and 1965, Evans worked on stages all over the United States ...
as Mr. Bradford
* Madison Bauer as Jane Campbell
* Phil Austin as Phillip Campbell
*
Brian Tee
, known professionally as Brian Tee, is an American actor. Born in Okinawa, Tee immigrated with his family to California when he was 2 years old. He attended the University of California and began pursuing his television career. His first appea ...
as Brian Yee
*
Charles Fleischer
Charles Fleischer (born August 27, 1950) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, musician, and writer, best known for his recurring role as Carvelli in '' Welcome Back, Kotter'', and for appearing in films such as ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', ...
as Frank Wiggins
* Shari Carlson as Judy Connors
*
Deborah Geffner
Deborah Geffner is an American actress, singer, and dancer.
Early life
Born in Pittsburgh, Geffner moved to New York City at the age of sixteen to train at the Juilliard School. She later danced for the Stuttgart Ballet and American Chamber Bal ...
as Irene Cristoff
*
Bai Ling
Bai Ling (, born October 10, 1966) is a Chinese American actress and musician. After acting in numerous Chinese productions, she played small roles in American films such as '' The Crow'' (1994) and '' Nixon'' (1995) before starring as the femal ...
as Jai Pham
* Jonathan Hernandez as Carlos
* Lyn Ross as Shirley
* Johann Tate as Burt
* Joel Shnowski as Freeman
* Richard Moorhouse as Uncle Bob
* Khatira Rafiqzada as Miss Garrett
*
Michael Bailey Smith
Michael Bailey Smith is an American actor. He is best known for his appearances on the television series ''Charmed'', where he played Belthazor, a Grimlock leader and Shax.
Early life
Smith was born in Alpena, Michigan, to an Air Force ...
as Chain Man
Release
''Chain Letter'' went through numerous delays before its official premiere, with several announced release dates that were cancelled.
On November 8, 2009, it was announced that New Films International had bought
rights to distribute ''Chain Letter'' worldwide, with the intention of developing it into a potential franchise. It was also reported that New Films intended to give the film a theatrical release in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
the following year.
The film was originally set to be released theatrically on May 21, 2010,
however, it was later announced that it would only receive a limited theatrical release in six US cities, on August 6, 2010,
but the release was once again pushed back.
The film would eventually premiere in a limited number of theaters on October 1, 2010.
It would become one of several horror films at the time that would under-perform at the box office,
grossing $138,788 in the United States on its opening day, averaging $342 in 406 theaters.
It finished its theatrical run on October 7, with $205,842 in the United States and $816,611 internationally, making a worldwide total of $1,022,453,
on a $3 million budget, making it a
box office bomb
A box-office bomb is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the combined production budget, marketing, and distribution costs exceed the revenue after release has te ...
.
Home media
The film was released in both unrated and theatrical cuts on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
and
Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
on February 1, 2011.
Reception
''Chain Letter'' received mostly negative reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film has an approval rating of 29% based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 2.1/10.
Mike Hale from ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' panned the film stating, "''Chain Letter'' is bad in depressing and irritating ways, from the incoherent story to the unimaginative brutality of the killings to the especially cynical, sequel-baiting ending". Frank Scheck from ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' called the film "a by-the-numbers example of torture porn". Diego Semerene from ''
Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...
'' awarded the film one and a half out of a possible four stars, highlighting the film's "hackneyed" anti-technology message, formulaic screenplay, and bland characters.
''
IGN
''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
''s R.L. Shaffer felt the film "could have been a pretty effective little chiller", but ended up being bland, and failed attempt to cash in on the ''
Scream'' knock-off trend; with well-executed gore effects undermined by poor pacing, direction, editing, and a plot stocked with one-dimensional characters and cheap scares.
Alternately, some reviewers were more favorable of the film. Heather Wixson of
Dread Central
Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website f ...
awarded the film a score of three and a half out of five. Wixson commended the film for its direction, and special effects, while also noting the unnecessary subplot, and minor technical errors,
Dennis Harvey from ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' felt the film's themes on technology felt way too dated, also criticizing the film's "sloppy" screenplay, poor resolution and unmemorable deaths. However, Harvey went on to note that the film's film's slick direction and plot twists worked well enough to ensure that it was reasonably successful.
References
Further reading
‘Chain Letter’ Passed Onto DVD/Blu-ray February 1- Bloody Disgusting
">Betsy Russell Talks Saw 3D and Chain Letter! [Exclusive/nowiki>">xclusive
">Betsy Russell Talks Saw 3D and Chain Letter! [Exclusive
/nowiki>- MovieWeb
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chain Letter
2010 films
2010 horror films
2010 horror thriller films
2010s American films
2010s English-language films
2010s serial killer films
American horror thriller films
American slasher films
American splatter films
Films based on urban legends
Films directed by Deon Taylor
Films shot in California
English-language horror thriller films
English-language crime films