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[[quoteright:338:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Cornered_3212.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:338:[[Film/PulpFiction Bring out the gimp.]]]]

-> ''When you wish evil on someone... evil might be listening.''

''Cornered!'' is a 2009 SlasherMovie starring Creator/SteveGuttenberg.

In the fall of 2008, the city of UsefulNotes/LosAngeles finds itself gripped with terror as a SerialKiller runs amok during the night, his MO being to break into mini marts, liquor stores or gas stations after hours and viciously torture-murder any employees still inside, taking the security tapes afterward to help him relive his crimes over and over again. In a desperate bid to catch this ruthless maniac, the mayor's office puts out a reward of half a million dollars on his head; and that's where our story begins, in a small corner store where the deliveryman, Morty, sparks a discussion among the friends inside about what they'd do if they caught the Convenience Store Killer (hereby known as CSK for simplicity's sake). Disembowelment, stabbing, [[EyeScream eye gouging]], and [[OffWithHisHead beheading]] are all suggested by the main players, who are listed below:

* Steve, the gruff store owner.
* Jimmy, Steve's nephew, new employee, and drug addict currently going through withdrawal.
* Donny, Steve's other bumbling and overweight employee.
* Jess, a prostitute just trying to make a living, and Donny's crush.
* Mona, a phone sex girl, and Jess's friend.

After the discussion, a suspicious man goes running out of the store, but the group thinks nothing of that, believing he was just a simple shoplifter. After Morty leaves, the place is closed down, and everyone heads up to Steve's apartment for poker night, Jess having been convinced to stay by Donny; Jimmy is also forced to participate by his uncle, who wants to keep an eye on him, essentially [[NailedToTheWagon nailing him to the wagon]]. As the night drags on, it becomes apparent that Steve's place is CSK's latest target. After [[DisposableVagrant disposing of Jacko, a vagrant]] who lives in the alleyway behind the store, the gimp-masked maniac somehow gets inside, and begins whittling down the five main characters, in exactly the same way they said they'd off him.

In essence, it's essentially a sleazier, smaller scale version of ''Film/{{Intruder}}''.

!! If you're heading out to the corner store, remember to pick up the following:

* ABloodyMess: Since it was a ketchup bottle CSK got Jimmy with it.
%%* TheAlcoholic: Jacko and Steve.
* AnArmAndALeg: One of the intro victims is missing his legs.
* AxeBeforeEntering: When the basement door is deadbolted, CSK starts sawing through it.
* BadassLongcoat: The CSK wears a black evil-looking trenchcoat.
%%* TheBadGuyWins]
* BatterUp: A baseball bat is kept around for security.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: When crazy old Jimmy spots the gimp mask-clad CSK on a monitor, he claims he's "a king cockroach".
* BigDamnHeroes: Morty shows up and scares Teddy off when he pulls a knife on Jess and Donny.
%%* BigEater: Mona and Donny.
* BilingualBonus: There's a lot of untranslated Spanish.
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Jacko and Mona, unless you count the victims briefly seen on security footage in the intro.
* BlackHumor: [[spoiler:The protagonists are doomed by ''a donut''.]]
* BookcasePassage: A hidden room behind a shelf turns out to be where Steve keeps all his [=VCRs=] and security tapes.
* BrokenHeel: Donny slips on a donut, knocking himself out.
* BugWar: Jimmy becomes convinced the roaches are out to get them all, being rallied by "king cockroach".
* CallingTheOldManOut: Jimmy attacks Steve, calling him out on his bullying behavior in the process.
* CassandraTruth: Nobody believes Jimmy when he spots CSK on a monitor since he's tripping and all.
* CellPhonesAreUseless: Steve hasn't paid the phone bills, Mona is out of credits, Jess left her cell phone in a john's car, Donny fell on his, and Jimmy's was thrown out by the enclosed dumpster by Steve. Contrived, but it works.
%%* ChekhovsGun: Teddy the john's knife.
* ChainsawGood: CSK disassembles the meat slicer, and goes to work on Steve with it.
* ColdBloodedTorture: CSK's usual MO.
* CoversAlwaysLie: CSK never actually wields a knife.
%%* ClosedCircle
%%* ClusterFBomb
* CoitusUninterruptus: Mona is on call, so a few times she graphically dirty talks in front of everyone.
* CreatorCameo: A few crew members had bit parts.
* CreditsGag: "No animals were injured in the making of this movie. The cockroaches, Joey and Freddy, were adopted by producer Alan Noel Vega and are living a life of luxury."
* CreepyBasement: Moreso than usual, since the store used to be a butcher shop.
%%* CreepyCockroach
* CrowbarCombatant: One of the intro victims is killed with what looks like one.
%%* CruelAndUnusualDeath
* CurbstompBattle: Jimmy snapping and beating Steve.
%%* CuriosityKilledTheCast
* DeadMansChest: Mona gets stuffed in a freezer.
* DeathByIrony: The cast are killed in the same ways they said they'd off CSK. [[spoiler:Since Donny never gave a method of death, Morty goes the extra mile of stuffing him full of donuts, his favorite food.]]
* DestinationDefenestration: While fighting Jacko over a bottle of alcohol he is trying to steal, Donny accidentally knocks him through the glass door.
* DisappearedDad: Jimmy's father is never mentioned, though his mother is still around, avoiding {{Nephewism}}.
%%* DisposableVagrant: Jacko.
%%* DwindlingParty
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Morty kills Jess and Donny and moves on to another store.]]
* EroticEating: Mona and her popsicle.
* EverybodyKnewAlready: Jimmy's drug addiction.
* EyeScream: Mona gets stabbed in the eyes with cornettos.
* FoodPorn: When Mona is digging through a freezer full of frozen goodies.
* ForceFeeding: [[spoiler:Donny's death.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:Everytime somebody tells Donny that those donuts will be the death of him.]]
* GetAholdOfYourselfMan: Jess smacks Donny when he starts letting out the below MadnessMantra.
%%* {{Gorn}}
%%* GratuitousSpanish
* GrievousBottleyHarm: Jimmy gets stabbed to death with a broken ketchup bottle.
* GroinAttack: CSK disembowels Steve with a saw, starting from the crotch.
%%* GrossUpCloseUp
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Jacko is somehow sliced in half.
* {{Hallucinations}}: Since Jimmy is going cold turkey and all.
* HereWeGoAgain: [[spoiler:The final scene is of Morty showing up to another store where another group of people are about to discuss what they’d do to CSK]]. Judging by the [[JumpScare cut to CSK wielding the meat slicer]], [[ForegoneConclusion they’re as good as dead.]]]]
%%* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Jess.
* HooksAndCrooks: Steve is hung upside down from some old meat hooks in the basement.
* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:Jess answering Mona's incoming call only phone, Morty showing up for the morning delivery, and Donny knocking himself and Morty out in a scuffle.]]
* ImNotAfraidOfYou: Screamed by Jimmy, when he's surrounded by imaginary roaches.
* ImprovisedWeapon: Along with Mona getting ice cream cones in the eyes, a newspaper mentions a previous victim was apparently killed with a can opener.
* InfoDump: The film opens with radio newscasts discussing CSK, along with security cam footage of the latest victims being shown.
* {{Irony}}: When Steve tells Donny to go look for Mona, who is currently having her head bashed in with a freezer lid, he tells him, "And if she's got her head in that freezer again, tell her I'm gonna kill her."
** Instead of deterring trouble, the security system attracts it.
%%* {{Jerkass}}: Teddy, Jess's latest john.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:The CSK, Morty]]
* TheKetchupTest: Justified, considering all the cans and bottles knocked onto the floor during Jimmy's struggle with CSK.
* LittleNo: When Jimmy starts going crazy and sees a cockroach coming towards him.
%%* MadeOfPlasticine
* MadnessMantra: "We are going to fucking die!"
%%* MaleGaze
* MalevolentMaskedMen: A gimp mask, and it actually works.
* MirrorScare: How Steve finds who he thinks is Jimmy.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: [[spoiler:''Mort''y.]]
%%* NailedToTheWagon: Jimmy.
%%* NerdyInhaler: Donny.
%%* NiceGuy: Donny.
%%* TheNicknamer: Steve.
* NothingIsScarier: What CSK did to his latest victims, which is briefly shown via blurry cam footage.
* NotUsingTheZWord: While it's obvious what Jess is doing, she's never actually called a hooker or prostitute.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: Jess mistakes the bulge caused by Donny's inhaler for a RagingStiffie.
* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:Jess's death]].
* OhCrap: [[spoiler:Via security cam footage, Donny discovers the RedHerring was just a shoplifter, and that Morty is CSK.]]
* OnceIsNotEnough: Probably should have stabbed and bludgeoned him a few more times, Donny and Jess.
* OtherStockPhrases:
--> '''CSK/[[spoiler:Morty]]''': "[[PreMortemOneLiner Clean up in aisle three.]]"
* PainMistakenForSex: Donny mistakes Mona's moans of pain for her just really getting into her most recent call.
* ParentalSubstitute: Steve, to Jimmy.
* PeekABooCorpse: Donny bumps into a shelf, causing Jimmy's saran-wrapped body to fall off the top of it. Later, Mona's frosted-over body is found in the freezer due to her ringing cell phone.
* PoeticSerialKiller: The CSK offs the residents of the store in a manner similar to what they said they'd do to him.
* PornStash: There are some naughty mags in Steve's hidden room.
* PunBasedTitle: [[DontExplainTheJoke They're trapped in a corner store]].
* RedHerring: [[spoiler:The customer who overhears the deaths conversation.]]
%%* RedShirt: Jacko.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Morty is CSK.]]
%%* SerialKiller
* SirSwearsALot: Steve.
* SnuffFilm: The security tapes CSK takes from each crime scene.
* SoundtrackDissonance: Funky Latin jazz plays over the credits.
* StartsWithTheirFuneral: The film begins with covered bodies being wheeled out of the store.
* StealingFromTheTill: One of Mona's routines has her as a SexySecretary who is caught doing this by a caller.
* StripPoker: Suggested by Steve.
* SuspectIsHatless: Mona's description of an apparent shoplifter? "He was wearing a hat".
* TemptingFate: Like the tagline says.
* TimePassesMontage: While the group is waiting for Mona to get back.
* TitleDrop: A line in a newspaper reads, "We won't quit until we have this sicko cornered!"
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: There's a reason he's nicknamed "Donny Donut".
%%* TurnOfTheMillennium: 2008.
%%* DevelopingDoomedCharacters
* UnwillingSuspension: Steve getting hung from some meat hooks.
* VerbedTitle: "Cornered" is a past tense verb and is the whole title.
* VillainOpeningScene: CSK watching some of his tapes.
* WaitHere: Jess tells Donny to keep hiding while she goes to get Morty.
* YoureInsane: Though CSK claims that he's just doing to the victims the twisted things that they said they'd do to him.

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