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Nikki Reed, Keith David, Noah Segan, Brad Dourif, Betsy Russell ... see more see more... , Ling Bai , Matthew Cohen , Cherilyn Wilson , Michael Bailey Smith , Clifton Powell , Deborah Geffner , Cody Kasch , Michael J. Pagan , Patrick St. Esprit , Terrence Evans , Jonathan Hernandez , Eliot Benjamin , Andy Arness , Madison Bauer , Phil Austin , Jessica Ritchie , Goldie Chan , Mark S. Allen , David Zahedian , Jeff Sutherland , Sheila Ellis , Christina Marie , Niki McElroy , Roshni Shukla , Kate Enggren , Bonnie-Jean Shelton , Lyn Ross , Khatira Razada , Richard Moorhouse , Joel Shnowski , Matthew Mongillo , Charles Fleischer , Johann Tate , Ivan Gonzalez , Matt Cohen (III) , Brian Tee

When high school senior Jessie Campbell (Nikki Reed) and her tight-knit group of friends begin to receive a series of foreboding email chain letters, they have no idea the terror that awaits them. Wit... read more read more...h a warning that if they break the chain, they will lose a life, the seemingly harmless email turns deadly when one-by-one the friends that do not forward the chain letter are hunted down and gruesomely killed by horror's newest villain, the Chain Man. A terrifying horror film that will leave audiences wondering if modern technology is really as safe as we think it is, CHAIN LETTER was directed by Deon Taylor and written by Taylor and Michael J. Pagan. The film stars Nikki Reed (Twilight, New Moon, Thirteen), Michael J. Pagan (How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Nite Tales), Noah Segan (Deadgirl), Matt Cohen (Boogeyman 2), Cody Kasch (Desperate Housewives), Betsy Russell (Saw III, Saw IV), Cherilyn Wilson (90210), Brad Dourif (Alien, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Keith David (Crash, Barbershop), with Michael Bailey Smith (The Hills Have Eyes) as the killer.-- (C) New Films International

Flixster Users

22% liked it

2,010 ratings

Critics

25% liked it

12 critics

R, 1 hr. 26 min.

Directed by: Deon Taylor

Release Date: October 1, 2010

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DVD Release Date: February 1, 2011

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Stats: 243 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (243)

  • LWOODS04
    February 14, 2011
    LWOODS04
    Cast: Nikki Reed, Keith David, Betsy Russell, Brad Dourif, Ling Bai, Brian Tee, Noah Segan, Clifton Powell, Matt Cohen, Cherilyn Wilson

    Director: Deon Taylor

    Summary: When a group of tech-savvy high school pals receives an electronic chain letter that demands they each fo... read morerward the message or face consequences, they laugh it off as an online prank and delete the posts. But when the deranged sender of the message starts hunting them down one by one, they find themselves in a fight for their lives.

    My Thoughts: "The one star is me being generous. I am a huge fan of horror flicks and this was just a huge disappointment, and what's really sad is it could have been much better. Instead, what you get is a film that was poorly done with bad everything. Script, acting, direction, that was the most horrifying thing this film had to offer. Its truly amateur hour here. Not even the killer was interesting. The one star is for the gore. At least it had that."
  • liquidchick76
    February 8, 2011
    liquidchick76
    Boo. I rented this because Netflix showed a three star rating, which is actually pretty decent for a horror flick. Therefore, I'm honestly confused by A) how that mess of a plot actually attracted some bigger names and B) why the hell people gave it such a good rating. It's fun... read moreny, and it's not supposed to be. It's a mess, and I don't just mean the lame over-the-top gore.
  • thefog1331
    February 6, 2011
    thefog1331
    Much like an actual chain letter...you should ignore this. I only picked it up because 3 things on the DVD case caught my eye: 'Brad Dourif', 'Betsy Russell' and 'gore'. Needless to say none of them are worth sitting through this half-baked mess.
  • moonrivers
    October 8, 2010
    moonrivers
    uhhh ... add this one to the list of yer films you later apologise for watching, as in: "i was w/a friend and they made me watch it" or how about "i thought it was another movie when i walked into it" or "i saw it for free so it was no sweat offa my back", like that. then keep l... read moreivin' yer life. in short, another stab at "the mysterious unkillable psycho who's mad at whoever has sex in this film" genre, or "we gotta work here in L.A. just like everybody else so leave us alone willya!"
  • DrZeek
    October 2, 2010
    DrZeek
    Jesse: "Break the chain, lose a life." That's a little intense.

    Oh man, this was a movie alright. I need to hurry up and type this one out quickly, because I might literally forget what happened in it in the next few minutes. This was a horror film made as if plenty of others ... read morehadn't done anything like this ever before, and it proceeds without any sense of irony or satire. There is no joke to be in on here, instead you have a film trying way too hard and characters shouting things like "he's watching us!" and "I don't wanna die!" And then you of course have the required amount of gore. I'm still recalling things about this movie, so brace yourself for more...

    The film's ingenious premise involves a group of teenagers who receive a chain letter via e-mails and text messages. Of course, these aren't just the average chain letters, no sir; these chain letters require the receiver to pass it along to five others or else they will be killed. The skeptical (and of course attractive) teens involved do not take this very seriously, with most of them just deleting the message; however, that will soon turn into their biggest mistake. One by one, these teens are hunted down by a hulking and techno savvy killer, who literally uses chains to kill his prey.

    I'll give this movie credit for one thing; the opening of the film actually features a deadly situation that escalates well enough, builds a certain amount of tension and somewhat delivers. As an isolated sequence, it is effective. Of course, there is also another hour and twenty minutes that follow this, and it's really pretty bad.

    The story is amazingly unoriginal, as one could argue for many types slasher films these days, but this one dares to play the entire thing straight. Basically rehashing plot elements from films like The Ring, Saw, and Friday the 13th (this list could go on), the sketchiest of ideas are assembled to create some kind of story. The movie also dares to play with social commentary, as it tries to show off an agenda about the use of technology in the world of today.

    The cast involved in this film does what they can. Somehow poor Keith David was roped into playing a detective hot on the trail as these murders stack up. Betsy Russell pops in as another detective, but I literally can't think of anything she did in this film. You also have Brad "Don't call me Wormtounge" Dourif staring as a creepy teacher. The lead role is filled by Nikki Reed, who is apparently in the Twilight movies, so at least she has that to fall back on.

    The direction of this film is pretty much what one would expect - overly flashy, seeming more like a bunch of assembled audition footage for a better gig down the road. There was certainly a budget used for having death scenes, but besides the opening scene that I've mentioned, nothing stands out here.

    How did I wind up at this film? I literally saw the title in a list of movie showtimes, and decided this would be the perfect follow up to walk into after what would be a much better film. I did as little as I could to find anything out about this movie, knowing only the title, reading a basic premise, and looking at the poster. As a result, I had a fabulous time sitting with just my friend in an empty theater, watching a terrible film and laughing at its absurdity.

    Now I'm sure plenty of fine work was done by all those involved and I wish no ill will towards any of them. Again, I had a blast watching this terrible movie, for whatever that's worth. Still, it does in fact suck. No way around that, this is not a good movie, and you can send that fact around in a letter.

    Jesse: We've gotta pass it on!
  • fb100002023516744
    October 10, 2011
    fb100002023516744
    Quite possibly the greatest horror film i've seen in a while. The blood and gore are just outrageous! The story was pretty creepy, as well. It did have descent acting, but it was still a pretty awesome movie. An instant classic!
  • banzaibrother
    April 30, 2011
    banzaibrother
    Modern Technology meets psycho killer. Gruesome scenes involving chains and hooks. Film was released just in time for Halloween.
  • shitfaced8
    February 10, 2011
    shitfaced8
    The begining started off promising enough with a grisly death, followed by a decent opening credit sequence bigging up various anti-technology groups, figures and events notably Ted Kaczynski, but it's all down from there. This is no different than any other post Scream / I Know ... read moreWhat You Did Last Summer slashers and has all of those cliches in full abundance. But where those movies had very unimaginitive and fairly tame death scenes, this one took a que from other horrible recent horrors like Saw or Hostel and stretched the death scenes out and made them more brutal. Whatever. Everything about this movie stinks. First of all the concept isn't all that different from the equally terrible film Strangeland written by and starring Twisted Sisters Dee Snider. Second of all whatever point it was trying to make about technology and whether it is trying to praise or critique it's influence in our lives, is lost by it's pervasive stupidity. Oh yeah. And the movie never really ended. The credits just start rolling in the middle of a scene. God I hope they aren't planning a sequel of this embarrasing and forgettable mess. Features Brad Dourif who is pretty much the best thing in the film. Everything else is garbage. Avoid.
  • bamadeb77
    January 26, 2011
    bamadeb77
    it's not bad but not that great either.....be prepared there will be sequels
  • dukeakasmudge
    May 16, 2011
    dukeakasmudge
    I really expected to HATE Chain Letter right from the start & give it a bad review but it was better then expected.I hope there's gonna be a part 2 that will pick up where this 1 left off

View All Chain Letter Reviews

Critic Reviews

Frank Scheck
October 5, 2010
Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

By-the-numbers horror flick is about as welcome, and entertaining, as a real chain letter. Full Review

Dennis Harvey
October 2, 2010
Dennis Harvey, Variety

Chain Letter yields few surprises, compensating with de rigueur false scares, unmemorable deaths and the kind of improbably exaggerated gore. Full Review

Michael Ordoņa
October 1, 2010
Michael Ordoņa, Los Angeles Times

Chain Letter is a nonsensical, bloody mess that, well, is missing a few links. Full Review

R. L. Shaffer
February 5, 2011
R. L. Shaffer, IGN DVD

A bland, sloppy, paint-by-numbers slasher that crams a half-baked anti-technology theme down your throat. Full Review

Staci Layne Wilson
January 26, 2011
Staci Layne Wilson, Horror.com

One M1ssed Call meets Final Destination in this formulaic but fun gore-fest. In case you are wondering, there are chains. And letters. [it] is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but that works in this... Full Review

Scott Weinberg
January 9, 2011
Scott Weinberg, FEARnet

Looks it was prepped, shot, and cut in one drunken weekend. Full Review

Linda Cook
October 30, 2010
Linda Cook, KWQC-TV (Iowa)

I've watched hundreds of movies - no, make that thousands - on the big screen. 'Chain Letter' has the dubious distinction of being the only movie I've ever seen that had no recognizable ending. Full Review

Linda Cook
October 9, 2010
Linda Cook, Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)

It's not even a real movie. Full Review

Diego Costa
October 3, 2010
Diego Costa, Slant Magazine

Nothing screams hackneyed repurposing like using a Nietzschean citation as preface to very non-Nietzschean drivel. Full Review

Prairie Miller
October 1, 2010
Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze

The Anti-Social Network, and a stylishly creepy invasion of privacy cyber-thriller, despite an overabundance of cheesy gore. As anti-online techie terrorists go about homicidally deleting digital junk... Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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