I was clearing all the messages from the message board I have (I'll post the link sometime) when I found this review I wrote on the movie "Identity."
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May 19th, 2003
I saw the horror flick "Identity" today. In fact, I just got back from the theater. Man, I'm telling you, that thing scared the spit out of me. It's about these ten people who get stranded at a motel in a rainstorm, and just like Agatha Christie's "Ten Little indians," they all die horrible deaths one by one. The freaky part (at first) is that a corresponding numbered key is found on each person as they die. Example: first, this whiney actress gets her head lobbed off, and there's a key with a number 10 on it. This husband of a newlywed couple gets stabbed to death next, and he has a 9 on him. This keeps going and going until there are seemingly only four people left. We then find out (here's the next freaky part, though not the last) that this entire scenario is being played out in the mind of a serial murder convict with TEN multiple personalities, whom are dying off one by one as he is being interrogated the night before his scheduled execution. The motel is really his brain, and the people are each of his personalities. Near the end, only one personality is left. Her name is Paris, and she is a prostitute, though not a typical one-- she has a good soul, and doesn't even act "friendly" to any of the main characters. Anyway, she manages to get away from the motel. The interrogators think she's the only personality left, so they think the killer-personality is dead. So instead of sending the convict to his death, they send him on his way to a hospital. On the way, in a van, a final scenario with Paris plays out in his mind...
Now, listen to this. The convict's mother was a prostitute, just like Paris. He never knew who his father was. She abandoned him when he was nine, and was killed. One of the original ten personalities was a little boy named Timmy, who is the same age as the convict when he lost his mom.
So inside the convict's mind, we see Paris at her new home in Florida, attending to her orange trees. She's digging in the dirt with a hand-rake (or whatever those things are) when she uncovers a motel key with the number 1 on it. She looks up, and there stands Timmy, holding the hand-rake like a weapon. We then see clips showing young Timmy getting the other personalities killed, an evil smile on his young face.
Back in reality, the convict is having spasms. His psychiatrist opens the window to check on him. Big mistake, as the convict has taken on Timmy's role. Timmy says to Paris: "Whores never get a second chance." And as Timmy kills Paris, the convict kills the van's driver and his psychiatrist.
Very, very spooky stuff. IMO, the best horror plays on sanity and pushes it to the limit. This movie has done very well with that. I loved it. It was really good, though not great. I feel it was lacking something, though I can't put my finger on what...
"As I was going up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish, I wish he'd go away."
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Only three days until college...
