P2 (film)


P2 is a 2007 horror thriller film directed by Franck Khalfoun, in his directorial debut, who co-wrote it with producers Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur. Set on Christmas Eve, the plot follows a young businesswoman who becomes trapped in an underground parking garage in midtown Manhattan, where she is pursued by an unhinged security guard who is obsessed with her.
It received mixed reviews from critics and was moderately successful at the box office.

Plot

Young and beautiful businesswoman Angela Bridges works in a Midtown Manhattan office block and gets stuck working late on Christmas Eve, before leaving to attend a family party. When she reaches the second underground parking level beneath the office block, she discovers that her car will not start. After receiving some assistance from Thomas Barclay, an unhinged security guard and turning down his offer to spend Christmas with him, she calls for a taxi and waits in the lobby. When the taxi arrives, she discovers she is locked in the lobby and runs back into the parking garage. The taxi leaves without her and the lights soon shut down. Angela, guided by the light on her cell phone, wanders around the deserted parking lot. Thomas attacks her, drugs her with chloroform, and takes her to his office.
Later, Angela awakens in a haze inside Thomas' office, having been changed into a white dress and high-heels by Thomas and her foot chained to the table. Thomas tells her that he loves her, despite her "many sins", having obsessively watched and recorded her for some time through the CCTV in the office block. Despite Angela's pleas and threats, Thomas continues to hold her against her will, even forcing her to call her family and lie about an illness so that no one will come looking for her. Angela tries to escape, but cannot due to Thomas' Rottweiler named Rocky. Thomas handcuffs Angela.
Taking Angela to another level of the parking lot, Thomas reveals her co-worker Jim Harper tied to an office chair. Thomas believes Jim is evil after he witnessed him drunkenly grope Angela at an office party. He instructs Angela to get back at Jim by hitting him with a flashlight. When Angela refuses, he viciously beats Jim himself. Thomas then rams him into the wall with his car multiple times, killing him. Amidst the murder, Angela is able to escape barefoot after ditching her high heels.
While Thomas hides the evidence, Angela finds a safe place to hide and manages to get her handcuffed hands in front of her. She rushes back to Thomas' office to retrieve her cell phone. She also finds key cards. She finds a spot near the locked gate that has reception, but after dialing 911, she drops her phone on the other side of the gate. She uses a key card to get to the elevators, with Thomas right behind. While in the elevator, Angela calls for help from the panel of the elevator. She hears a voice that appears to be an operator but later turns out to be Thomas, who flushes her out by flooding the elevator with a fire hose from a higher floor. Amidst the flooding, the body of Karl Donson, another security guard, drops down and hits her.
While hiding in the parking lot, Angela is tormented by Thomas, who plays Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" over the intercom. She breaks open an emergency fire axe and begins to destroy the cameras one by one while making her way to his office, prepared to fight. On entering, she finds a video playing of Thomas molesting her body while she was drugged. Thomas sneaks up behind her and knocks her out with a taser. He hides her in the trunk of a car, just as two police officers arrive in response to a reported disturbance. Angela wakes up and breaks out, but realizes she is too late as she sees the police car drive off.
Thomas releases Rocky, which injures her leg, although she manages to kill it. She finds keys in a car rental office and tries to escape by car, but is side-swiped by Thomas in another vehicle, leading to a game of chicken, which Angela wins. However, in the heat of the chase, she flips the vehicle.
Thomas opens the door, and Angela—feigning death—manages to stab him in the eye. She chokes him with her handcuffs, takes his keys to free herself, then cuffs him to the car just before he comes to. Taking his taser, she begins to leave, until Thomas desperately starts pleading, then calls her a "cunt". In retaliation, she uses the Taser to ignite a stream of gasoline leaking from the car. Thomas is engulfed in the flames and dies as the car explodes, which sets off the sprinklers. Angela opens the garage gate and limps out into a cold and desolate Manhattan Christmas morning just as the fire department, paramedics, and police can be heard arriving. The last scene shows her collapsing, where she presumably dies.

Cast

Production

The film re-unites Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur, and Franck Khalfoun, who had previously worked together as director, writer and actor, respectively, on the 2003 horror film High Tension. According to Aja, when asked about the comparisons with Tension, he said: "With a strong plot in the vein of High Tension, P2 gives us a chance to further explore the survival aspect of the terror movie."
P2 began principal photography on August 14, 2006, and continued filming through late 2006. Filming took place exclusively at night, at a real, working Toronto parking garage. There were fourteen white dresses made for the character of Angela to wear; each one was in various stages of dirtiness and decay. Three different dogs were used to portray Thomas' Rottweiler.
It was intended to be featured in the UK-based London FrightFest Film Festival in August 2007, but was pulled out soon before its date and replaced with Teeth.
P2 was featured in an ad campaign on the social networking website Myspace, where a trailer for the film could also be streamed.

Reception

Box office

P2 was released theatrically in the United States on November 9, 2007, and in the United Kingdom on May 2, 2008. The film did only average business in US and other territories.
P2 was released on DVD on April 8, 2008, and includes an anamorphic widescreen transfer with dolby 5.1 surround and special features include cast and crew commentary, production notes and three behind the scenes featurettes. DVD sales of the film fared better than the box office sales.

Critical reception

The critical reception to P2 was generally mixed. As of November 29, 2009 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, P2 had a rating of 33%. Out of a total of 69 reviews, the film has 23 "fresh" reviews and 46 "rotten" reviews, with an average rating of 4.25 out of 10.
On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 37 out of 100, based on 12 reviews.
There were, however, some positive reviews of P2. Roger Ebert liked the film, giving it 3 out of 4 stars, and stated in his review that "although the plot may seem like a formulatic slasher film, P2 is in fact a very well made, atmospheric thriller with gritty yet realistic characters."