Are You Scared? (2006)

"The last game you'll ever play."

Plot

After waking up in an abandoned factory, six kidnapped teenagers find out that they're taking part in a reality game show called "Are You Scared?" in which each of them must face their worst fear by taking part in a series of twisted games. The catch: if they do not overcome their fears and complete the games, they will die.

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The first thing that crossed my mind upon watching the opening scene of the film was "I guess this director has seen Saw." So derivate and blatant is the plagiarism that the film should be re-titled Are You Being Sued? From the grungy setting, to the stupid victims not realising they have to inflict pain upon themselves to survive the games, to the sinister deep voice giving them instructions, a time limit announced over the public announce system and the sadist behind the games wanting the victims to learn some harsh life lessons along the way, this is Saw, only the most lame, pointless knock-off version you're going to see. I'm all for people borrowing ideas from other films if they're going to make their own film and not just copy the hell out of someone else's hard work.

So it pains me to see how badly this film wants to be Saw. It's not like anyone tries to hide the fact - it's so blatantly obvious. How many films previously had mysterious strangers abducting people and telling them they have a few minutes to solve some puzzle before it kills them? I tried to so hard to write this review without comparing it to Saw but since the filmmakers clearly put so much effort into making you think of Saw, then I have no alternative. There are a few mildly entertaining moments, specifically centring around the crazy games that this guy has created. Did you ever wonder how Jigsaw could put together those crazy, stupendously difficult puzzles with just his own hands (and occasionally a helper)? Well this guy can top that and more. There's people with entrails hanging out, a row of shotguns ready to blow off someone's head at the touch of a tripwire and a nifty two-way drilling machine. There's some decent gore thrown at the camera here including a face melted by acid and someone blown up in a bad CGI explosion. At least Are You Scared? tries to play to its strengths, of which there are few, but you can't argue that the screen isn't littered with carnage throughout.

But the idea of these messy puzzles is to simply kill their participant - they are simply no-win situations. Given the killer actually does the dirty deed himself a few times, you wonder why he bothered putting together all of this crap together in the first place and especially why he roped so many people into getting killed. Message to future cinematic psychos: save yourself (and ourselves) seventy-nine minutes of agony and just kill your victims with a shotgun or knife. It's quicker, less messy and saves you forking out a load of your own cash to make the elaborate puzzles and power them for hours upon end which will no doubt cost a fortune in electricity. The players appear to be innocent victims, caught up in a simple revenge plot, rather than people who deserve to suffer. I don't quite understand how so many of them buy in to the idea that they're in a reality TV show, particularly given the drugging and kidnapping element. But once they realise that their fellow players are legitimately being killed rather than eliminated from the game, then Are You Scared? really begins to fall apart.

Despite the fact that there's a reasonable amount of people waiting to be killed and that it only runs for seventy-nine minutes, you'd expect the film to pick up the pace. But it is so slow and drawn out, having characters clash with each other numerous times about what to do, etc. There's little back story to all of the participants and their motivations and decision-making is mainly left up in the air. There's also a secondary plot here about a detective's attempt to track down the madman. This takes a lot of time away from the gruesome proceedings in the factory and given the short running time including credits, it's a criminal waste of time. in fact it is all a criminal waste of time because I don't recall the plot going anywhere other than a moment towards the end of the film. All of the build up for that (I don't want to spoil anything but those who have seen the film will know).

Of course the film can't end with the killer being finished off so we get a false ending followed by a brief sequel-setting scene. In my initial review for this, I hoped they don't go through with it, for our sake! However, since revamping the site and revisiting old reviews like this, it turns out that a sequel was made, the cleverly titled Are You Scared 2? They definitely missed a trick by using the numeral instead of the word 'too'.

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Final Verdict

Are You Scared? is pretty bad. A pointless and shameless rip-off of Saw like you are never going to see. Are You Scared? Are You Joking?

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Are You Scared? Director(s): Andy Hurst Writer(s): Ellis Walker, Andy Hurst Actor(s): Alethea Kutscher, Erin Consalvi, Brad Ashten, Carlee Avers, Kariem Marbury, Soren Bowie, Eric Francis, Jennifer Cozza Duration: 79 mins