"Nine strangers. One house. Only one will get out..."
— Poster tagline
A 2004 Psychological Horror film directed by Steven R. Monroe, originally screened at the Cannes Film Festival before being released in the U.S. the following year.
The film's premise has nine people kidnapped and shipped to a mansion with boarded doors and windows: Father Duffy, the priest; Jay, the detective; Lea, the dancer; Claire, the tennis player; Francis, the musician; Cynthia, Francis' wife; Al B, the rapper; Shona, the drug addict; and Max, the designer.
When they all awaken and meet up in the same room, a voice from a speaker introduces himself as The Watcher. He informs them that they're trapped in the mansion with 75 surveillance cameras and will not be released unless only one person is alive. The remaining player will then walk out of the house and be rewarded five million dollars. Realizing that there is no way to bust through the mansion, they decide to keep their wits and get through this game. However, as time passes, the players find themselves succumbing to greed, fear, and mistrust, causing the mansion to be transformed into a warzone, where only one will win.
This film contains examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Two. Cynthia accidentally hits her head and dies when Al B shoves her off in a fight with Francis, and Lea herself pulls one off in the end when she's struggling with Francis (who is trying to murder her) and they fall from the second story to the table. Francis ends up getting stabbed with the thick shard of glass he was trying to kill Lea with.
- Alone with the Psycho: Lea ends up stuck with the murderous Francis in the end after Max, Claire, and Father Duffy are dead.
- Ax-Crazy: Several of them have their moments, with Francis being the textbook example.
- Barefoot Captives: Lea ends up barefoot in the third act and remains so after she escapes the house and ends up being led to a new house with four players from different houses that also were sole survivors, in anticipation of another game.
- Battering Ram: After being informed they are trapped in the house, the prisoners use the heavy table as a battering ram to try to smash out through the bricked-up entrance, to no avail.
- Big Good: Father Duffy is the most decent of the characters, especially after Jay's early exit as the second victim.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Francis of all the people is the one that goes completely psycho and ends up killing numerous people to win the cash.
- May Roy also eventually goes off the deep end and tries to throttle Claire over food.
- Boom, Headshot!: Max Roy, Claire, and Father Duffy go out this way. The first by Duffy, the latter two by Francis.
- Chekhov's Gun: Ultimately, the food. When everyone initially refuses to participate in the murder games, at first, they each get barely enough food to survive, usually one potato or a piece of chicken. After the first death, the food delivered increases tenfold, and continues to be served in massive portions every time someone dies.
- Played with with Jay's gun. While three people are killed by it, it runs out of bullets when there are still two survivors left.
- Closed Circle: Once they're trapped in the house, there's no getting out until there's only one survivor.
- Clothing Combat: Francis uses Max's scarf to string up Al B. Later, Max uses his belt to strangle Claire. In Al B's case however, while there are hints that he was murdered, and possibly by Francis, we never know for sure his death wasn't a suicide.
- Damsel Fight-and-Flight Response: The Final Girl, a good Christian girl, stabs the villain in the leg and runs away instead of stabbing him repeatedly. Despite the villain having already killed several others and showing no hesitation. Of course, he comes after her.
- Danger Takes A Back Seat: Claire is abducted when her kidnapper garbs her from the backseat of her car outside a nightclub.
- Deadly Game: Nine people go in, one comes out and wins five million dollars.
- Death by Falling Over: Cynthia is killed by cracking her skull on a banister she is pushed into by Al B.
- Decoy Protagonist: Boy, I bet you thought Jay, the police officer and single father, would be making it through with Lea, right? Nope!
- Disproportionate Retribution: After Jay locks up Al B for accidentally killing Cynthia, Al B responds by beating Jay to death after he's able to escape the room he was locked up in.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: Father Duffy does this, begging Max to stop throttling Claire over food. When Max refuses to back down, in part because he's losing his mind, Duffy ends up killing him.
- Downer Ending:
- Lea is allowed to walk out with her five million in a bag. However, when she goes through, she finds herself in an identical foyer with four other people that have the same bags with them, scared and on the verge of crying. She then realizes that she'll have to play a new game.
- A different ending has Lea walking up in her own apartment, finding the five million and a tape nearby. The tape plays, the Watcher telling her that along with her prize money, she earned the rights to join an exclusive survival club. As the tape ends, it shows nine new people in the same bedroom that the original nine were placed. It then dawns on Lea that she's The Watcher of the new nine. It also hints that the Watcher of her own game was a survivor himself.
- Driven to Suicide: Al B. It's left ambiguous whether he actually did it out of guilt for having killed Jay, or if he was killed.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Jay, the armed cop, naturally assumes the role of the group's leader and starts leading the decision making. He ends up being the second victim.
- Electrified Bathtub: Subverted. Francis attempts to kill Lea by ripping a light fixation while Lea washes her hands and drop it into the sink. Lea is shocked and knocked out, but awakens later.
- The Fashionista: Max Roy is a fashion designer whose initial concern on being trapped in a Deadly Game in a house with nine strangers is that he only has one outfit.
- Face–Heel Turn: Once Cynthia dies, Francis gets increasingly deranged until he ends up being the primary antagonist, killing three people in short order and attempting to kill Lea.
- Final Girl: Lea has to face Francis after he's killed the others, and is in the end the lone survivor.
- Forced into Evil: All of the trapped victims. They're locked in an inescapable mansion until only one is left. The longer they wait to kill, the less food they get. They're even psychologically tortured with the knowledge that to escape, they'll have to take down an armed cop and a Catholic priest. And in the latter's case, a cop and a priest are left to decide whether they'll kill to escape.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Francis steals the brandy decanter and smashes it acquire a large shard of glass, which he later uses to stab Father Duffy in the back. He also attempts to kill Lea with it.
- Hanging Around: Francis kills Al B. by hanging him with Max's scarf is an attempt to make it look like a suicide.
- Here We Go Again!: In one ending, as Lea leaves the house, she is led into another house where she meets four people. Each of them has a bag of money. The camera zooms in on Lea; a fearful look grows as she realizes that the game is not over.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Francis ends up stabbing and killing himself with the shard of glass he was trying to kill Lea with after they struggle and fall from the second floor.
- Human Notepad: During his Sanity Slippage, Francis starts writing on his body with Cynthia's lipstick.
- Improvised Weapon: Claire kills Shona by stabbing her in the neck with a corkscrew. Other weapons used include a broken brandy decanter, a scarf and a belt, and a length of pipe.
- In the Back: Francis stabs Father Duffy in the back before stealing the gun from his hands.
- Jerkass: Al B for sure, who constantly acts like a dick and plays victim when he's called on it. Claire and Shona have their moments as well, though most of Shona's tendencies are because she's harassed by Claire for her lower class upbringing.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Jay, who emerges as the group's leader, but tells it like it is.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Francis. After his wife dies and he undergoes sanity slippage, he's responsible for multiple on-screen murders and attempts to kill Lea before she ultimately takes him down herself.
- Limited Wardrobe: All the characters have only the clothes they were kidnapped in. Max Roy even lampshades it, and as a fashion designer, he's not happy.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Father Duffy's decision to provide food and charity to the locked up Al B allows Al B to get out of his confinement. His first order of business is to bludgeon Jay to death.
- Normal People: Rather than fill the house with criminals that would be willing to quickly kill each other for the money, the hostages are just everyday people, including a married couple. it also includes an armed cop and a Catholic priest, likely just to mess with everyone, or in their own two cases, forcing a decent cop and a servant of God into the position of having to kill to save themselves.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Fashion Designer May Roy, as played by Peter Capaldi speaks in Capaldi's natural Scottish brogue.
- Not My Driver: Jay is supervising a prisoner transport when he hops in the cab of the prison van and tells the driver to take them to the airport, only for the driver to turn around and knock him out.
- Only Sane Man: Father Duffy and Jay, until he becomes the second victim Jay's last act before dying is to pass his loaded gun to Duffy, because he trusts Duffy that strongly. On the female side of things, Lea fits into this category. She ends up being the lone survivor.
- Open Shirt Taunt: Francis pulls off his shirt while daring Father Duffy to shoot him.
- Paranoia Gambit: The watcher speaks once, tells them only one can leave, and then leaves them alone. Jay is left armed, and there are a few things around the house to use as weapon, and there's plenty of alcohol around to help people lose their inhibition for murder, but ultimately, other than controlling the food they're given, (they get a lot more each time someone dies) the watcher does nothing, and several of the early deaths are from either an accident, or the hostage's own paranoia driving them to murder ( I.E. Claire killing Shona.)
- Pipe Pain: After Father Duffy lets him out of his makeshift cell, Al B. beats Jay with the length of pipe that had been being used to bar the door closed.
- Red Herring: With Father Duffy being played by frequent character villain Dennis Hopper, audiences may expect that Hopper is posing as a priest, or that the character will eventually snap and go Ax-Crazy. He doesn't. While he does kill Max Roy, it's to save Claire, who Max is strangling. He also wounds the Ax-Crazy Francis before Francis gets the gun from him and kills Duffy and Claire.
- Sanity Slippage: Most of the players go through this as time goes on, especially Francis. Max ends up losing it over the food, and gets put down by Duffy as a result.
- Ten Little Murder Victims: A variance of the trope with up to eight victims, rather than 10. Also, rather than one person picking them off, anyone can turn on anyone at any time, even someone who you think is an ally may turn on you.
- The Voice: The Watcher is never seen, and is voiced by Jim Carter.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Dennis Hopper tries for an oirish accent as Father Duffy. It's not quite passable, but he tries.
