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Kate (Franka Potente) a single, attractive YUPPIE (young, urban, professional) living in London is
at a party getting bored, drinking too much and unable to connect with anyone. A guy tries to flirt with her but rubs her the wrong way and she tells him to "jerk off". In
frustration, she leaves the party alone and tries but fails to hail a taxi. She proceeds to the underground subway station and finds plenty of time to spare before the last train
arrives. She sits on a bench, drinks more alcohol and dozes off. She wakes to the rumble of a departing train; but now, she's marooned in a deserted, locked-up station. Hope
glimmers a little with the sound of an arriving train but quickly fades as she's confronted in that train by an old suitor who followed her with rape in mind. But that is just the
beginning of her nightmare as a more sinister Creep looms with worse than rape in mind. Morbid and gruesome scenes with the Creep follows as Kate tries to escape.
Christopher Smith did a fine job of writing and directing this horror film avoiding all the
clichιs that could have made this movie predictable. His masterful use of suspense and surprise did manage to keep the viewers at the edge of their seats. His concept of a
beautiful girl getting marooned in the vast, underground tunnels of Europe's subway system during the unholy hours of mid-night to dawn with all the creeps lurking about is the
stuff of nightmares. Franka as Kate is perfectly cast, while the Creep's acting and make-up are truly fiendish.
Kate's lifestyle is an open invitation for creeps to make a play for her. She's liberated,
addicted to alcohol and drugs and lives all alone by herself. Her descent to the subterranean labyrinth of London's subway station is almost a metaphor of what her life is leading
to. She has become too comfortable being in that place and at that time to the point of being able to sleep despite the danger and the lateness of the hour. That is not to say
that she deserves the dreadful fate that awaits her. But her way of life is what we seems to attract evil though Kate's hedonistic and prurient orientation is somewhat off-set by
her generous and compassionate behavior towards the poor, the homeless and the wounded. Her being able to survive evil elicits a sympathetic chord from the viewers.
(Date Reviewed: 08 July 2005)
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