100 Feet (2008)

Sadly, 100 Feet, the title of screenwriter Eric Red's 2008 horror starring Famke Janssen, does not refer to the many legs of a giant flesh-eating centipede—a shame, 'cos I reckon that would have made for a far more original and believable movie than this well-acted, but ultimately very silly ghost story.

Janssen stars as Marnie Watson, who has returned home after 752 days in prison for killing her abusive husband; it is there that she is to serve the remainder of her sentence under house arrest, fitted with an electronic tag to restrict her movement to a radius of—you guessed it!—100 feet. As Marnie slowly begins to put her life back in order (painting over blood stains on the wall, scaring homeless guys, screwing the delivery boy etc.) she finds her progress hampered by the very angry ghost of her dead husband, who hasn't quite finished with using his wife as a punch bag.

Red, whose earlier writing credits include the excellent thriller The Hitcher and cult vampire hit Near Dark, clearly possesses some skill behind the camera managing a creepy atmosphere, confidently tackling some complex effects and pulling off a few effective scares, but it seems as though, in changing roles, he's forgotten the importance of a really tight script; glaring plot-holes and lapses in logic blight this film from start to finish! (I'm not going to waste time going into details, but if you're interested, check out the film's message board on IMDb—plenty of other people have listed them for me).

It is thanks to Janssen's presence (she's still a major hottie and acquits herself admirably in her role), and one particularly grisly death scene that had me double checking the DVD's rating (yes, it really is only a 15 certificate), that I'm willing to overlook some of the film's minor problems, but a talented, easy-on-the-eye lead and some nasty gore only excuses so much.

Next time Eric, iron out the uglier creases before going into production and you might have another hit on your hands (oh, and feel free to take the killer centipede idea and run with it—seriously, that would make one hell of a film!).

Fmovies: When I sat down to watch the 2008 movie "100 Feet" it was solely for two reasons. The first being that Famke Janssen was in it, and the second being that it is a horror movie, of course.

I hadn't heard about the movie prior to finding it by random luck. I didn't even read the synopsis, I just saw that it was a horror movie and saw Famke Janssen on the DVD front cover, and that was all I needed.

It turned out that "100 Feet" was actually a rather enjoyable movie. There was a good flow to the storyline, with little useless scenes to serve as filler. Everything here served a purpose and was straight to the point.

They had some really impressive effects in the movie, and I must admit that it really helped lift up the movie quite well. Especially the scene with the mauling in the bedroom. That was actually some of the most impressive special effects I have seen in a long, long time.

"100 Feet" was driven by a good storyline, but equally so by a rather good performance by the cast. And while they had a rather small cast, there was a bit more resting on the shoulders of the those performing. And I will say that both Famke Janssen and Bobby Cannavale carried themselves and the movie quite well.

This is definitely a horror movie that is well worth taking the time and effort to sit down and watch. And there are some jump scares here and there throughout the movie.

The story starts with an interesting premise but soon goes overboard in depicting some gory scenes of a ghost's vengeance during which time much blood is shed for the sake of horror fans who like this sort of thing. It's well acted and tense with some quietly underplayed opening scenes, but once the ghost starts wreaking the place all hell breaks loose and the story loses a great deal of credibility.

The acting is fine, with Famke Janssen giving a strong performance as a woman forced to wear an ankle bracelet and kept under close watch by a suspicious policeman who was her husband's partner. But the tension doesn't become tight until the last third of the story and then it goes way over the top in depicting violence.

Scary enough but midway through, the story loses a lot of credibility despite the high quality of the performances.

100 Feet fmovies. 100 feet is an openly aggressive film that does well to keep your pulse pounding all the way up to the flat line ending. I enjoyed the idea behind the story and for the most part felt as though it was well portrayed. Several times you find yourself having to stretch your imagination in order to play along but nothing I would consider a deal breaker. I highly appreciated the amount of time and attention spent on the gore effects. On the other side of that coin a little more time and effort put into actually frightening the viewer would have been well received. Sadly this is a film that would have ranked much higher had the ending not brought the momentum to a stand-still. As is, still a decent flick.

The movie begins with Marnie Wilson (Famke Janssen), arriving home after being released from an unknown prison sentence, for one year of house arrest. She stabbed her abusive Cop husband to death after he came at her with a knife and she managed to get it away from him to defend herself. She had filed many complaints about the abuse but his cop friends didn't take her seriously. She obviously was found guilty since she went to prison and has now been released to house arrest. The title of the movie - 100 Feet - refers to the distance she can travel. Marnie must always be within 100 feet of the ankle monitor box that hangs in her home. If she goes outside 100 feet, the ankle monitor beeps and she has 3 minutes to get back inside or the police are called.

The movie doesn't waste much time introducing the audience and the lead character (Marnie) to the ghost of her late husband who apparently haunts the house and wants her to pay for what she did. He is violent and takes pleasure in scaring her and physically hurting her - for example, he throws her down the flight of stairs and also hits her in the face. The ghost is NOT invisible.. it's not some force that can't be seen and the fear is supposed to come from the unknown. The movie creates the ghost and we can see his shape/face/body and at times it IS scary. The movie plays with this by having his image pop up with quick camera shots in the dark.

Ed Westwick plays Joey, a young man from the neighborhood who befriends Marnie and is someone who she can talk to and who runs errands for her such as getting books from the library and groceries from the supermarket. Bobby Cannavale plays a cop who was the partner of Marnie's husband. He can't let what happened go and he obsessively camps outside the house to keep an eye on Marnie inside.

Famke Janssen's performance in this movie was fantastic. The actual movie was average in execution and it had an ending that lessoned the film especially with the over the top CGI effects which IMO were just too much in the final scenes (it wasn't a problem for 95% of the movie though) but Famke really stepped it up making the movie almost mesmerizing at times. Her fear and grief and determination were palpable and she really sold the character she was playing. Just a great job from her overall.

I saw this movie last night when it was on SyFy. I happened to flip the channel and quickly decided to watch. I am glad I did. I gave this movie a 6 out of 10 b/c it was enjoyable and well acted but it wasn't brilliant by any means and the over the top ending ruined it a bit for me. I still recommend seeing this movie and there is a really crazy (in a good way) fight scene that is worth checking out.

100 Feet is the wrong movie to be watching at night time, trust me on this one. It is well written, has great acting, and great dialogue. Despite the tiresome amount of films that have gone in this direction, this one stands out from them all. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who dares to be frightened, because the probability of this scary flick freaking you to pieces is pretty high! A woman is let out early from prison, but at a high cost: She must reside in the same house that she murdered her husband in, who happened to be a violent cop. His partner happens to be the man who is more then anxious to put her back in prison, so he waits patiently in his car parked across the street, waiting for her to violate her probation. She has an ankle bracelet attached to her ankle (hence the name), and is instructed not to go past 100 feet of the house, or the alarm will go off. Goes off for longer then three minutes, and she's automatically going back to jail. Not too hard to do, right? HEH, the plot thickens. The house she's living in is possessed by a poltergeist, and it just happens to be the husband she killed in self defense. And he is powerful and angry as ever!!! Her survival skills must be put to play, however, what defense do you have against something that is not in human form? Can it even be stopped? Even if her probation officer believes her story that she is being violently stalked by her dead husband, how can he protect her from this savage entity? There are long, boring sequences, but bare with it, and trust me, the rewards come later. By the first half hour, she knows what is going on. The last half hour is when the really good stuff happens, and I'm talking...jump out of your skin, "Oh my God!", freaky , weird , crazy, messed up stuff. I'm not revealing too much, because it will spoil the story, and I sure do not want to spoil the ending. If you like your movies scary, you're in for a treat....which is long overdue these days. Fantastic film!