Saw 2 was by no means a perfect film but what it did well was to make excellent use of its central premise. This was that of a group of apparently unconnected strangers being trapped in a house with the last one left alive being allowed to go free. This is hardly an original concept having been used in various other films over the years, most notably the Cube series which added a sci-fi twist to the grisly proceedings and My Little Eye which was more standard horror fare. It would seem that this particular set-up had been explored to its maximum potential with the gory excesses portrayed so gleefully in those movies but Steven R. Monroe apparently had other ideas when he directed this passable horror-thriller.

In an interesting reversal of the usual development of these frequently-used ideas, House of 9 opts to tone down the blood and horror leaving (in theory at least) a more psychological thriller. No devilish syringe traps, giant ovens or razor boxes are to be found here. In their place is a steadily declining amount of food, steadily increasing room temperature and people simply left to their own paranoia and suspicion. The mastermind behind it all who is watching them from various cameras positioned throughout the house only speaks to them once and for the rest of the time leaves them alone. The idea seems to be that deep-down beneath the nicieties of civilisation and polite society, basic human nature is self-serving, brutal and ruthless.

Regardless of whether this is actually true, this film does not successfully convince that it is. The problem is that the passage of time is badly represented. It is never clear how much time has passed, it sometimes seems to be mere hours but then at other times references to sleeping and meals seem to indicate that they have been trapped for many days. In order for the levels of suspicion and outright lunacy to ring true to the audience it is important to establish that these people have been locked up without explanation for a long enough time for them to start losing the plot. This does not mean that the exact time they have been in there needs to be shown - quite the opposite in fact - but the way it is represented just doesn't quite work.

Another aspect of the film that doesn't quite work are the somehwat stock characters who make up the nine unfortunate souls selected by the nefarious mystery host. There is the arrogant Frenchman, the pacifist Irish priest, the bitchy but beautiful socialite, the American hard-ass cop with a heart, the black bad-boy rapper etc... It is just fortunate that most of these roles are well acted (yes even Kelly Brook who actually turns in a very respectable performance) with the ironic exception of the film's biggest name. Dennis Hopper has the ability to create amazing characters which are so strong they sometimes even eclipse the film they are in. Unfortunately he also has the ability to be utterly crap (Super Mario Brothers anyone?). While his actual performance in this film is fine and uncharacteristically restrained, his Irish accent is so abysmal that it single-handedly excuses every single other bad Irish accent in any film ever on the grounds that in comparison they really aren't that bad - yes even David Boreanaz in Angel is better.

The setting for a film that takes place wholly in one location is important and the location used in this film suits its purpose very well. The house has just the right atmosphere of grandeur offset by a certain ambient weirdness. There are huge murals on the wall depicting nine twisted faces merging into each other, there are no windows and the light is a constant soft neon glow which makes it impossible to tell whether it is day or night out in the real world. The house really does eem to be removed from reality with no chance of escape.

This said however, it does rankle a little that the characters do not make much of an attempt at escaping and do not even try to disable the cameras through which the mystery host watches proceedings. These cameras, it should be noted, have worse playback quality than a 1980's minimarket's CCTV system - all blurred black and white images which are practically impossible to tell apart. You'd think an evil genius with a mansion to spare in which he can lock people up and wait for them to kill each other would be able to afford something a little more advanced.

Without giving the game away too much, House of 9 has one of those endings that, like Saw does not bear close scrutiny. It seems like a great twist at first but I guarantee that half an hour later you'll be thinking, "hang on a minute, that's just silly, that'd never work!". Still, for all its implausibilities, unoriginalities and screamingly bad accents, House of 9 is a pleasing enough diversion which at least tries to do something different with what seems to be becoming a genre within a genre, the bunch-of-people-locked-in-a-house-by-a-total-nutter genre. Catchy title.

Rating 7/10

Review By Matt Compton