ATM (2012)

This is what happens when you don't park your car close enough to the ATM. This is the first and most obvious thing about the film. A lack of attention to detail and falling for the same old nonsensical plot driven inadequacies. What any decent survival scare movie relies on is that the main characters are brain-achingly stupid. They must be, in order to get into these ludicrous situations in the first place.

The premise of the film is simple. Three work colleagues are driving home late one night after a Christmas party and they stop into one of the those middle-of-nowhere ATM outlets to take out some cash. When they are about to leave the vestibule, they see a man in a furry hooded parka just standing in the car park, clearly waiting for them to leave. The initial reaction is to just leave, but the man is just standing there, looking at them, although you cannot see his face. As they take a step out, he takes a step towards the group.

So begins an overly long study in what you should and shouldn't do if confronted with the same conundrum. The plot is pedestrian and dull as dishwater for the majority of the time, punctuated with the occasional bout of mayhem either from the hunter or the hunted.

I'm loathe to spend too much time on this, as there really isn't much to say about it, aside from I was disappointed to find Alice Eve taking a role that is so clearly beneath her. With a shoddy script, cheap-as-chips special effects and a story that is too often yawnworthy given the genre, it seems like a genuine waste of time to sit through. Having watched the superior Evidence only recently, it goes to show what you can do with passion and no budget, the polar opposite of what we find here.

I would struggle to even suggest you wait for the DVD release. In fact, just avoid it altogether, you'll be doing yourself a favour.