It's Time To CHOOSE (Review & Interview) → On Demand Weekly

It’s Time To CHOOSE (Review & Interview)March 17, 2011

IFC Films

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand and from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: CHOOSE (IFC Midnight), below the interview.

Editor's Note: On Demand Weekly interviewed CHOOSE producer Allen Bain about the film and distriubting it on VOD.

ON DEMAND WEEKLY: You’ve been a part of many films [including MANITO, XX/XY, CAMP]. What prompted you to produce a horror film?

ALLEN BAIN: I've been a horror fan since I first saw HALLOWEEN as a pre-teen. I believe that horror is a great medium to explore serious social issues while keeping the audience entertained (and scared). CHOOSE is really a movie that poses the question of nature vs nurture if you think about it.

CHOOSE (IFC Midnight)

ODW: How are you promoting CHOOSE to the at home, Video On Demand [VOD] audience?

AB: The fun thing about CHOOSE is that it's not over when the end credits roll. The movie will keep you asking yourself what choice would I make when presented the impossible choice. It's a game we all play in our daily routine. We are promoting the film and the concept together.

ODW: What is the advantage of watching films at home on VOD?

AB: I've been producing films for over a decade and when I started people had these giant, heavy TV's with small screens. Now most people have big, sleek, HD flat screens, and home stereo systems.

Hollywood is constantly trying to one-up itself in regards to spectacle so that it can get seats filled in the local theaters. Everyone seems upset that the DVD market is dying, let it die and let's move on. VOD is the ultimate form of instant gratification. The quality is close to what you get in a theater, the price is reasonable and the convenience is unbeatable.

It's Time To CHOOSE
By Lorisa Bates

With a dark and gloomy ecstatic, CHOOSE immediately reminded me of SAW. Director Marcus Graves quickly pulls the audience into an opening scene which explores the whole notion of choice and consequence.

The film opens with a loving suburban family whose life is turned upside down when a masked psychopath forces the teenage daughter to decide which of her parents will live and which one will die. When she refuses to choose, a gun is place to her younger brother’s head, and she reluctantly blurts out her choice. The deranged killer takes his sick game even further when he makes her stab the parent of choice to death.

Flash forward. We meet journalist student Fiona Wagner (Katheryn Winnick) and her father Tom (Kevin Pollack) the local Sheriff investigating random crimes throughout his suburban town. He and his young detective piece together evidence that link these heinous scenes to the same unknown psychopath.

CHOOSE (IFC Midnight)

More importantly, victims are forced to participate in their own demise by choosing between two troublesome and ghastly acts of sacrifice. For example, one of his victims – a concert pianist, is given the option of a drill to his ears (he will no longer be able to hear his music) or an axe to his hands (he will no longer be able to play again).

Kein Pollack / CHOOSE (IFC Midnight)

Things get more complicated when the murderer lures Fiona into a cat-and-mouse game by alluding to the fact that her mother may have not actually committed suicide. Fiona uses her journalistic skills to launch her own investigation and soon discovers that she and her father are somehow are a part of the killer’s master plan of destruction.

Bruce Dern / CHOOSE (IFC Midnight)

Although Graves introduces the concept of morals, values and accountability early in the film, his execution of the story falls short when he aborts the concept and focuses on the predictability of a typical horror flick. With an introverted, yet aggressive female protagonist, an overprotective father, idiotic friends, a nameless serial killer who lurks in the shadows; and, of course, the obligatory gruesome death scenes, the audience must choose to watch this movie or not.