"Ten Little Indians" meets "Se7en"

The fact that Miramax's Dimension Films division has shelved this sometimes nifty serial killer thriller on and off for about two years says a lot about its faith in its products of late - not withstanding its messy divorce from Disney recently couldn't have made it any easier on when to dust this off and slide it in unsuspectingly.  Well the time has finally come down the pike and frankly, it's not as disastrous as it seemed to be expected from its studio's apparent reluctance to release it.

The premise is simple in its high-concept conceit: a group of individual FBI profiler wanna-bes are taken to a remote island to go on an extensive training excursion by a shadowy agent named Harris (Kilmer barely registering interest) only for the tables to be turned and the plottings skew: a serial killer is in their midst and one of them may in fact be the patient, deliberately time-set pacing slayer.  

Each recruit seems on edge and with a chip on his or her shoulder including the smug, all-knowing Whitman (Eion Bailey currently on "ER"); wheelchair bound, gun-toting Sherman (Clifton Collins Jr.); barely distinguishable Perry (Will Kemp); fearless Harper (Jonny Lee Miller late of "Melinda and Melinda"); water-phobic Moore (Kathryn Morris of TV's "Cold Case"); jacked-up Reston (Christian Slater); cigarette fiend Willis (Patricia Velasquez); and Jensen (LL Cool J) who has a hidden agenda making him a prime suspect when the elaborately staged offings begin with sudden surprise.  The killer's trademark is using a broken watch with the setting for the next murder allowing a small window of time for the victims to scuttle about for a clue as to who's next.  With the metaphorical clock ticking to mortality the paranoia, gun pointing and personal accusations heat up the potboiler at hand with enough tension percolating.

The first set-piece (and perhaps the most grisly of all) is elaborate like a Rube Goldberg device that echoes the "Final Destination" films in how death is sudden and unpredictably gruesome yet here it is a game of skill and thought process that has a deadline for each player.  The screenplay by Wayne Kramer ("The Cooler") and Kevin Brodbin ("Constantine") for the most part trundles along with taut nastiness yet runs out of steam as the killings get a tad dull and when the Talking Killer spouts on and on and one twist ending supercedes the real one, well it just might as well be a "Law & Order" or "CSI" misfire.

Directed skillfully by Renny Harlin (who unfortunately did the last "Exorcist" junk flick) returns somewhat to form with his action pieces and camera work off tilt here and there to liven things up.

But the whole serial killer genre is beginning to be anemic and borderline ridiculous - that it's running on vapors to begin with - makes one wonder if we defang a monster just how scary can it be?

Film Rating: êê  (out of 4)