Thr3e Movie Review
Thr3e Review
Grim
Rating: PG-13
2007
Cast & Crew
Director : Robby Henson
Producer : Joe Goodman, Bobby Neutz, Ralph Winter
Screenwriter : Alan B. McElroy, Ted Dekker
Starring : Marc Blucas, Justine Waddell, Laura Jordan, Max Ryan, Bill Moseley
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Marc Blucas Photos
  
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Despite my distaste for movies that use numerals in place of letters in their
titles, I agreed to take a look at Thr3e, which quietly arrives in theaters
today. Heralded as a "faith-based thriller," "Christian horror movie," or any
other number of vague monikers that indicate some religious content mixed with
your usual horror fare.
OK, fair enough, so what do we have here? Well, Thr3e is a kind of riff on your
Saw movies and Seven, giving us an unseen psychopath who's stalking our hapless
hero Kevin (Marc Blucas), who wants nothing more than to complete his thesis
and get out of seminary school. Problem is, he's got something iffy in his
past, and the psycho stalker is trying to force Kevin to "confess" his sins...
mainly by killing off Kevin's friends and spraying graffiti on his car before
blowing it up. Each time he's in touch, he delivers a mysterious set of
instructions and a limited time in which to complete them, or else something
explodes.
Into this mix comes Jennifer Peters (Justine Waddell), an FBI profiler and
oft-stalked writer in her own right, and Samantha (Laura Jordan), a childhood
friend of Kevin's. It's with these extra characters that Thr3e starts to get
confusing, muddy, and downright nuts. Plot points erupt with each new puzzle,
delivered via phone, tape recorder, or note stuck to the refrigerator. All
things ultimately start to point to a conclusion that you'll probably see
coming from some miles away.
Thr3e is a low-budget production (the CGI explosions in lieu of actual
pyrotechnics are especially painful) but it's also an obvious labor of love.
Director Robby Henson's last film, The Visitation, was another religion-driven
thriller that didn't make much sense nor much of an impact on critics. Henson
makes up for this with earnestness and he does coax good performances from his
actors. But without a workable script, well, you know what they say about roads
paved with good intentions.
Aka Three, 3.
Bye bye.
