This Terrifying Early Aughts Thriller Delivers Tense Yuletide Terror
In 2007, Roger Ebert remarked, “Although the plot may seem like a formulaic slasher film, P2 is in fact a very well-made, atmospheric thriller with gritty yet realistic characters.” The praise may seem faint, but coming from Ebert—a notoriously tough horror critic—it’s worth considerably more than it might seem.
For the uninitiated, P2 (2007) was 2012 Maniac director Franck Khalfoun’s directorial debut. Produced and co-written by French Extremism auteur Alexandre Aja, P2 is a conspicuous artifact of its time. The early aughts horror scene was mean. Post-9/11 anxiety and encroaching nihilism rendered the horror scene a kind of capsule of geopolitical repudiation. The world didn’t make sense. Horror cinema reflected that.
Principally, it meant even the most conventional of horror thrillers were released with a layer of grime and scum. Titles that a decade before might have been Hitchcockian, were now repurposed as digital exploitation for a new age. The likes of High Tension, Saw, Hostel, The Strangers, and Eden Lake (I could go on) were hopeless affairs, dour forays into the ugliest recesses of the human condition. Longstanding horror norms were upended. Final girls were brutalized, killers evaded either apprehension or death, and any semblance of moral purpose often amounted to “life is terrible.”
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The yuletide terror of Khalfoun’s high concept P2 suggests the same. Manhattan office worker Angela Bridges (Rachel Nichols, Alias) is consigned to work late on Christmas Eve. She reaches the titular level in the office parking garage, only to find that her car won’t start. Security guard Thomas Barclay (Wes Bentley) offers to help, even extending an invitation to spend Christmas with him. Thomas is weird. Angela declines, instead calling a taxi, though Thomas doesn’t intend to take “No” for an answer. After she misses her taxi, he chloroforms her, inciting a night of cat-and-mouse tension as Angela endeavors to escape.
P2 does have the bearings of the ostensible “torture porn” that was ubiquitous in the early aughts. At times, the rhythms of the subgenre are exploited to grim effect. Angela spends the bulk of the movie held captive, menaced both physically and psychologically by Thomas’ unwound mind. Other office workers inexplicably appear bound and gagged, though they’re quickly (and savagely) killed by Thomas.
Yet, for all the overt violence and sexual menace (a thread P2, like several early aughts horror films, introduces for shock factor without care for the material), P2 is never quite so gory as to be explicitly “extreme.” Psychologically, it feels like the natural extension of “woman in peril” films like Wait Until Dark or Lady in a Cage, augmented with a touch more gore.
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Thematic parallels to some of the greatest suspense features ever made weren’t enough to save P2 from a slow, painful death at the domestic holiday box office. In 2007, P2 concluded its run with a meager $7.7 million total gross. Aside from Ebert and a few others, the critical reception wasn’t kind. By this point, critics and audiences had slowly started to tire of the decade’s ethical agnosticism. Horror was changing, however slowly, and P2 was too grim to resonate strongly with audiences.
It’s a shame, since while P2 isn’t a classic by any means, it’s the kind of lean, mean cat-and-mouse thriller we don’t see often enough these days. I’ve mentioned before that this kind of mid-list horror film—debut director, B-list cast, small budget, no IP connection—is too often consigned to On Demand or streaming in the current theatrical landscape. The theaters of today simply don’t have room for high-concept thrillers like P2. Every so often, one does come along, though it’s all too rare (or, in the case of Unhinged, incredulously released in the midst of a pandemic).
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Maybe it’s nostalgia, maybe something else, but there are few things as thrilling as seeing a modest movie release theatrically and successfully deliver white-knuckle thrills. All the gloss and acclaim in the world can’t compensate for a nasty little thriller with few pretensions. P2 is thrilling, often scary, and gamely played by all involved. Even more broadly, Christmas horror—while considerably more popular than any other holiday— remains too irregular a subgenre. It’s rarely theatrical, and just as regularly misses the modest mark. Often, they’re made for nothing, dumped on streaming for some poor chum to stumble upon (looking at you, Mrs. Claus).
P2, which is currently streaming on Shudder, is better than most of its ilk. It’s not a game-changer by any means, but if you haven’t caught it yet, you’re in for a treat. If you have, consider revisiting it this holiday season. It cuts more fiercely than you might remember.
Categorized:Editorials
