DEV and ARK: "ATM!" by DEV

The 2012 suspense film “ATM” starred three, talented, young stars, but failed to deliver a bone-chilling film to match. That’s what I think, and apparently, most critics think so too.

Story and Concept: I loved the concept. It’s what most experts would call a “claustrophobic thriller”. Why claustrophobic? ‘Cause it features three officemates trapped inside a little ATM. I loved the idea of having a strange man trapping people inside an ATM in the middle of the night. It’s what I would call an adventure. But the plot didn’t fulfill most of my expectations.

Most of the story didn’t make sense. Who’s that mysterious person? What does he want with Cory, Emily and David (the main characters, respectively)? Why did he trap them there? Questions that, up until the end of the film, were not answered.

The plot twist would have been great, but I kinda wanted to know what was happening in the first place. Plot twist? Good. Twisting a plot that nobody understood? Bad idea.

Setting: In my psychotic opinion, the setting was great: An ATM in the middle of an empty parking lot, late, late at night. A mysterious man has appeared out of nowhere, and he looked dangerous. They were safe, only because the ATM’s doors were locked from the inside. But they’re wondering why the man hasn’t busted in yet (‘cause I’m sure he could) Nevertheless, if they chose to stay inside, they would freeze to death because of the wintry temperature. The setting was good. It provided just enough scary detail to horrify a claustrophobic.

Acting: Like I said, the actors were good. It’s the story that brought it all down. The characters lacked common sense, and that’s what ultimately led to their demise. I mean, the strange man didn’t even have a gun! AND there were three of them, against one person who was only smart enough to kill a rabbit. Unfortunately, the characters seemed to have the I.Q. of a rabbit. That figures.

Sound: My only complaint: The Christmas song at the beginning made it seem like a comedy movie for me. Only until the ATM scene did I realize that I signed up for horror. The rest of the soundtrack was good.

Direction: Can we blame the director for a badly-explained plot? Maybe. But I don’t think so. The direction was good. It did feel like a credible horror film. I only felt it lacked certain details. In fact, I would have liked the movie if everything made sense.

Overall: I would give it a 2 out of 5 rating. It scored two points for a good cast, a good setting, a good premise and a good plot twist. It lost two points for not being able to tie it all up into one great movie. AND it lost another point for not giving the characters the sense which is common: Common sense!