We recently picked up a film we had not heard of called The Loft in our local Poundland, a source of many low budget films on DVD (see our post here )
We were drawn to it thanks to its great cast. This one is a remake of Loft, but retains the same Director Erik Van Looy with a script by Wesley Strick, from Bart De Pauw’s original screenplay.
The film is about 5 friends, led by Vincent (Karl Urban) an architect who has got a deal for them on a loft penthouse, where they can have quiet time or carry out hidden affairs.
Those friends are real estate agents Luke (Wentworth Miller) and Marty (Eric Stonestreet); Vincent’s best friend, Chris (James Marsden) a psychiatrist and his half-brother Phillip (Martin Schoenaerts)
The 5 are all enjoying the Loft until one day, Sarah (Isabel Lucas), a girl is found murdered in the bed. With only the 5 friends having access to the loft via Key and security code, one of them must have killed her.
The film is then told through various flashbacks as the story unravels to its climax where the murderer will be revealed.
The film may feel like a B-Movie murder mystery/erotic thriller but I found it to have more than enough twists and turns to keep me involved.
I also had a suspect from the start, yet never could be sure of their reasons for the murders so again effective.
The real problem with the film is that it was hard to be sympathetic or care about any of the characters when they have all been established as cheats.
Vincent is married to Barbara (Valerie Cruz) but is having an affair with Sarah;
Marty is married to Mimi (Kali Rocha) but cheats on her;
Philip is a heavy drug user but is also married to Vicky (Margarita Levieva);
Chris is cheating on his wife Allison (Rhona Mitra) after falling in love with Ann (Rachael Taylor)
Finally, Luke, married to Ellie (Elaine Cassidy) is the one who discovers the body, yet we don’t know why he has been using the loft.
With Vincent having the affair with Sarah, it is suggested he ends it and she has committed suicide and he becomes Detective Huggins (Kristin Lehman) top suspect.
We soon learn that Sarah is not the only one that Vincent has been sleeping with, when we learn that Luke has been recording their activities in the Loft, to reveal he has also slept with Mimi, as well as Zoe (Madison Burge), the younger sister of Philip and Chris.
With all these motives, and Luke recording them, which the police suspect may mean he is attracted to them, all the others have the motive to want to set Vincent up, as with no suicide note found, this is being treated as murder.
It maybe because I only paid a pound for this film, but watching with low expectations I was generally surprised how much I liked this film, it kept me involved with more than enough twists and turns to keep me involved.
The film is also helped by its recognisable cast from TV and Film, you could do a lot worse than give this a try
You can find the film at Amazon here if can’t find in your local Poundland.
You can find the trailer at the film’s Facebook page here
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