If you've seen Saw, then you are aware of the basic principles of the movie. A disturbed individual kidnaps a bunch of kids and claims they are apart of a game show. Little do they know, the only winnings will cost them their lives. This demented thriller seems to follow in its footsteps with a little twist; it sucks. Simply stated, the actors are terrible. The 'victims' took acting 101, but beyond that the rest of the crew needs to go back to their day job. Gore, blood, and fried carcass galore. Looking for some more twisted violence and you can look past the poor acting, then maybe you can sit through this nightmare. My advise is to pass and go see Saw III.

Okay, the movie itself, removed from anything isn't bad at all. Good production values, decent fx work enhanced with some (budget) cg work, nice camera work, good sound and score, etc. The characters are contrived and two dimensional, but thats not the actor's fault. They don't write their own lines. For the most part, they do as much as they can with what was given to them, and at no point distract from the story. Ah the story. What if Mason Verger from "Hannibal" watched Saw 2, and decided to copy it nearly scene for scene, character for character? Well that would give you this little flick. Generally these copycat movies take a premise and at least alter it (the asylum's under cutter films immediately come to mind: The Hillside Cannibals, The Paossesion of Gail Bowers, When a Stalker Comes, Snakes on a Train, etc) This one however just blatantly rips off Saw 2. Right down to the surgically implanted key, and the Dina Meyer character. Copying a theme is bad enough, but going so far as too copy specific scenes in hugely successful films, and then having them released a year later is just pathetic. I mean had this film been released before, or concurrently with Saw 2, it would be something, but a year later? Come on now. At any rate, if you can put aside the blatant lack of originality, or if you are a horror fan who hasn't seen the Saw franchise, you will probably enjoy this, but if you have seen it, then pass this one.

Nope.

"Run, little piggies."

Kids with a desire to be on a reality show awaken in a warehouse realizing they were drugged, the mechanically altered voice of a hideously facially scarred sicko tells them that the rules of his game --with a prize to the victor who is able to face their worst fear--consist of successfully completing a task that endangers them (the game seemingly without much hope of surviving) as every chosen member walk aimlessly throughout the building trying to find an exit. Booby-trapped rooms await each teen, most perishing horribly (bomb inside body goes off splattering victim all over a glass window, shot guns wired blasting a victim when hot lights cause his skin to sizzle and blindness leading to a trip of the trigger, twins having to decide which one will take a drill to the forehead, etc), as detectives try to find the whereabouts of the psychopath behind the deadly game. Sound familiar? Pathetic rip of the Saw franchise, made on very low budget, performed poorly by a pretty but annoying cast who swear a lot. Kariem Marbury, as token black brotha, Jason, is so atrocious you'll yearn for him to be put out of our misery and thankfully is. Alethea Kutscher, as daddy-hating final girl, Kelly, gets the lead honors, perhaps only a survivor due to her relationship with the burn-faced antagonist. The film plays on Kelly's worst fear all the way to the end. Mostly shot in one singular occasion, sometimes retreating to the detectives as to give us momentary breaks, the movie keeps the characters roaming about with no clear direction on how to escape. Because "Are You Scared?" doesn't even try to break from its inspiration in any way creatively, the movie feels like a direct retread of a franchise that has yielded too many "deadly games" rip-offs to begin with. Really, the only real difference is the inspiration for why the killer is behind the elaborate death traps, but even that is so corny it will probably elicit more eye-rolling that applause.