Are You Scared

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Are You Scared
Directed by	Andy Hurst
Starring	Alethea Kutscher Carlee Avers Brad Ashten Soren Bowie
Distributed by	Revolver Entertainment
Release date(s)	April 30, 2007
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

Are You Scared is a 2007 horror film starring Carlee Avers, Brad Ashten, and Soren Bowie. It was released directly to DVD on April 30.

1 Plot

[edit] Plot

The premise centers around a serial killer (identified in the credits as the "Shadow Man") who kidnaps his victims and gives them deadly ultimatums of physical torture, each resulting in certain death. He often uses the ruse of being a talent agent recruiting them for a modeling contract or television show to lure them and watches their deaths via electronic video surveillance. His identity unknown by the police despite a year of investigating, all they know about him is that he wants to teach his victims that "a merciful death is better than a life of pain".

The FBI is summoned after yet another death: a woman killed when her face was corroded with acid, then electrocuted. Police Detective Wilkins is initially defensive, confident that he can locate the killer himself, without the aide of the FBI. With their arrival, however, brings considerable advancements in the investigation.

As they attempt to pinpoint the Shadow Man's identity, six young adults wake up inside an abandoned factory; one of them, Jason, is panicked after discovering a large surgical incision made in his chest. However, their concerns are mollified when the Shadow Man announces from an intercom that they are competing on a reality television show called Are You Scared?, for which they applied months ago. Jason is told that his turn is first, and he leaves the group to tackle a physical challenge alone. After being sealed in a room, he is told that there is an explosive device in a cavity in his body, and he must use surgical equipment provided for him to remove it in one minute. After refusing to do so, the Shadow Man, watching from his lair, detonates the bomb, musing, "Thank you for playing, Jason." It is at this point that the audience third sees his face, half of which has been peeled off.

Meanwhile, the FBI, aware that six teenagers are missing, determine that they are the Shadow Man's next victims. From a shipping number on a glass tank from a previous crime, they track down the shop owner who provided equipment for him, and they learn his physical description and home address from him.

Following the death of Cherie's twin brother after he sacrifices himself to save her, being killed when a power drill digs its way into his skull, the remaining four try to find ways to escape the factory, but its exists have been sealed and electrified. Brad, separated from the group, is lured into a pitch-black basement, through which he must traverse without setting off several shotguns set to fire on tripwires. Despite being shot repeatedly, he survives and finds his friends again, but he is inadvertently killed by Cherie, who impales him with a pole, thinking him to be the killer.

Infuriated, Laura, Kelly, and Cherie storm their way through the warehouse, destroying any cameras they can find, causing the Shadow Man to leave his perch. He brutally stabs Laura in the stomach, pulls her intestines out, and forces her to watch as rats gnaw on them. Kelly discovers the Shadow Man's empty surveillance room, watching in horror as he later decapitates Cherie on the screens with wire.

She then sees Detective Wilkins pull up to the building, and watches an argument between him and his partner; she urges him to call for back up, but he insists on entering alone. He finds her and promises that he will save her, just as the Shadow Man approaches behind him and cuts his head in half at the mouth with an axe.

The Shadow Man then reveals to Kelly that all of his work was mere preparation for his confrontation with her. The audience is told that Kelly and her mother are responsible for the scar on his face; the Shadow Man is Kelly's abusive father, and Kelly and her mother attempted to murder him years ago by setting the house on fire. Kelly and her mother manage to escape a device designed to burn them to death, in the process setting the room on fire and sealing him inside.

The next day, Kelly watches a news report of the carnage, but is terrified when she hears the reporter mention the discovery of only six bodies in the factory; the FBI's investigation uncovers a tunnel to the sewers in the room that the Shadow Man was locked in. The final shot freezes as we see the Shadow Man sneaking up on Kelly from behind. The screen goes black just as she starts to scream.

[edit] Cast

Alethea Kutscher - Kelly
Brad Ashten
Soren Bowie
Caia Coley - Detective Wilkins
Erin Consalvi - Cherie
Brent Fidler - Shadow Man
Amy Lyndon - Kelly's Mom
Kariem Markbury
Mick Minh Nguyen - Forensic Technician

[edit] Reception

Due to its quiet release, Are You Scared has received few professional critiques, and most have been negative. The most prominent complaint has been that the premise of the film was lifted from the more successful Saw; Scott Foy went so far to call the film "Saw for Dummies" and a "shameless knock-off". He also ended his review with the denouncement, "No, I was not scared." ^[1] Slasherpool, however, was "surprised by how decent it turned out to be", citing it as "idiotic" but "mildly entertaining", "as far as rip-offs go". ^[2]