Stevieboy666 Five people play poker after hours in the upstairs of a liquor store, only to be picked off one by one by a serial killer. Much of the first half is centred around this game, frankly very boring. The acting isn't great, especially Duval as the heroin addict going cold turkey. The temptation to hit the FFWD button was great. Once the killing starts there is an attempt, with some success, to substitute gore for tension. Many slasher fans will feel short changed however, with only one killing near the end producing the gory goods. I guess making a film in pretty much a single location takes skill, so credit to them for trying. Could've been better, I'd pretty much lost interest after the first half.

gavin6942 During their nightly poker game a group of lowlifes are terrorized in their own convenience store by a masked killer.The highlight of this film was obviously James Duval as Jimmy, who is going through heroin withdrawal. He puts on perhaps the best performance of his career. Although I learned to love him in the films of Gregg Araki and in "May", he seems to be starting a second -- even better -- phase of his acting, as seen here and in "Sushi Girl".While there is little else here that is all that memorable, and some moments seem a bit clichéd or hackneyed, it is not a bad little film. Certainly better than the average lower budget horror film. And it is great to see Steve Guttenberg, a wonderful actor whose time is not yet over.

sarah45101 The most effective scenes in this film come when it focuses on a single character, such as James Duval's Jimmy, who is hallucinating from heroin withdrawals. Steve Guttenberg, who is only in about twenty minutes of the film, also delivers some convincing lines, moving away from his typecasting as the goofy guy. He's solid here, especially in the last ten minutes. The film stays away from blood and gore, opting instead for the psychological punch. What's most interesting is the things we don't see, like the outside world, which doesn't exist here. The film is entirely focused on a single store, shunning the outside world. It's like the director wants us to be confined, along with the cast, in a single room, so that we may also experience their terror and confusion.

homecoming8 Low-budget horror movies can be surprisingly good (a lot of classics are in fact low-budget films) or just extremely bad. "Cornered" isn't awfully bad, but it is certainly below average. It starts off OK, with opening credits that let you believe this is a serial-killer film like "Se7en" or "Resurrection". But soon you realize this is a very average by-the-numbers 'slasher' with a shoe-string budget. There are only 7 actors and 1 location. The slow story takes place in a grocery\liquor store where the owner and some friends play poker while there is killer in the shop. One by one they check it out and never come back. The story reminds you a little of the classic slasher "Intruder" by Scott Spiegel. But "Intruder" was creepy and claustrophobic. "Intruder" had amazing special effects (KNB group) and brutal killings. It also had a surprising ending. "Cornered" fails on all counts. The story gets boring and it really stretches to fill the 82 minutes of running time. There was no money for real special effects or gore. The killings are disappointing. Even the 'highlight' kill, where one of them is hanging upside down and is gutted with an circle saw, is shown in a very cheap way to hide the fact that there was no real special-effects team present during the shooting. To conclude with the 'surprise' ending: yeah, right; like we didn't see that one coming ! (well, there were not much choices to begin with). First credited is Steve Guttenberg (Mahoney from the "Police Academy" films) but his role is kind of minimum. "Cornered" is not a very good movie. It really shows on screen that this is a very low-budget picture. It also never gets interesting and the motives of the killer are not really explained here. If you haven't seen "Intruder" (one of the best slashers ever made) than you can better check that one out and forget about this one.