P2 is a 2007 thriller film directed by Franck Khalfoun, written and produced by Khalfoun, Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur and starring Rachel Nichols and Wes Bentley.

The trio of Khalfoun, Aja and Levasseur have worked on other genre films as well, including the critically acclaimed 2006 film The Hills Have Eyes. The name of the film comes from the underground parking garage level in which the film takes place. The plot revolves around Angela (Nichols), a young businesswoman who is imprisoned on Christmas Eve in the parking garage beneath the downtown Manhattan office block where she works. Her captor is loner Thomas (Bentley), the obsessive and psychopathic security guard of the underground parking lot, who has been secretly stalking Angela for sometime and has finally snapped, leading to a murderous game of cat-and-mouse.

P2 was rated "R" by the MPAA for "strong violence/gore, terror and language."

P2 - 8/10 (B+)

Was almost a 7/10 ( B ) but considering I gave RED EYE a B+ and this is more well-crafted I've got to give it the same. I wish Rachel McAdams had been in this one instead. But anyway, it's a very enjoyable thriller with a nice holiday-themed touch.

Too bad the film was either released three weeks too early or three weeks too late.

Embracing genre conventions while also subverting them, P2 is a surprising, deviant jolt to the current tepid state of horror filmmaking in America. The Christmas Eve plot follows Angela, a successful businesswoman who is trapped in a parking garage by a psychopathic security guard. There's an under-developed subplot about Angela's relationship with her family, but the movie is more about suspense than family tension.

P2 is a skillful juggling act of slasher genre comforts and distinctive rule-bending with only a few missteps. Some examples of clichés turned upside down include a pair of cops who are neither bumbling or incompetent, an implied male hero/savior that never pans out, and a heroine in peril that makes surprisingly rational and intelligent decisions. Best of all, the half-baked feminist overtones ever-present in this genre are taken to rousing, absurd heights. Angela is a powerful career woman who is single and happy that way. Her delusional male captor is intimidated by her feminine power, and in order for his fantasy to play out, he needs to put her on a level he can handle. So he dresses her in a cleavage bearing dress while she is unconscious, even taking the time to cake on red lipstick. This obtuse beautification is flipped on its head, as at the end of the film Angela ends up caked in red blood, fighting both the male captor and his delusional, idealized objectification of her.

P2 is a grizzly movie; it's from the artistic trio of French filmmakers that made the truly sick Haute Tension and The Hills Have Eyes remake. However, in another twist on our expectations, the gore acts as punctuation marks to the suspenseful meat of the film. Another twist is the film's usage of modern technology; slasher films usually avoid plot-busters like cell phones and security cameras, but P2 embraces them as a tool for suspense.

The director (Franck Khalfoun) creates a sense of environment and space, something that is crucial to the success of any horror movie, gliding the camera through the various levels of the parking garage and the attached office building. The environment is further enhanced by the inspired use of holiday music and the bizarre black comedy of Wes Bentley's baroque, chewing-through-the-wall performance. The filmmakers admirably refuse to sexualize their female lead even though they have plenty of opportunity. All of the previous movies from this group of filmmakers have featured women in prominent roles subverting societal expectations and kicking ass in general.

When compared to the neutered PG-13 "thrillers" and overdone hard-R torture films of today, P2 is wholly refreshing. While still suffering from the cliches inherent in a slasher film and an occasionally generic visual style, P2 works as suspenseful filmmaking with remarkable depth for the genre. And it has a great, beautiful ending.

Click here to read a real review from a critic who seems to be the only sane one in this thread...

http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2007/11/12/horror-flick-%e2%80%98p2%e2%80%99-an-un-scary-suckfest/

Well I'm glad we have Jay Brissenden from that bastion of film criticism the Nevada Sagebrush to set us all straight.

He spends the majority of the review not saying anything substantial about the movie to eventually sum it all up with "it has bad dialogue". Cool.

If you are going to find a negative review for P2, I'm sure you can do a lot better than this.

First, The Nevada Sagebrush in the #1 ranked College Newspaper in the Country, so it is a respectable source.

Second, they have always had short reviews that basically just sum up the movie. They have never been able to have in depth reviews, due to word count restrictions.

Third and finally, ouch..... I really like that review, i thought i did a pretty good job writing it!

First, The Nevada Sagebrush in the #1 ranked College Newspaper in the Country, so it is a respectable source.

Second, they have always had short reviews that basically just sum up the movie. They have never been able to have in depth reviews, due to word count restrictions.

Third and finally, ouch..... I really like that review, i thought i did a pretty good job writing it!

#1 ranked college newspaper? Says who? Even if, it hardly means anything. Who outside of people that go to the college read the newspaper? Hell, I go to a college but never read the paper anymore because I have better things to do. People in general don't read newspapers much anymore.