R.S.V.P. (2002)

R.S.V.P. (2002). R.S.V.P.: Directed by Mark Anthony Galluzzo. With James M. Churchman, Sharon Bruneau, Scott Workman, A. Scott. A psychology student invites a group of his friends and teacher to a drug and alcohol-fueled party where he plans to murder them all.

“As one of the commenters here noted, sundance is usually inundated with gritty depressing films. R.S.V.P. is certainly not one of those. The same person said there were many clues throughout the film that hint at the surprise ending. To say that there were u0026quot;cluesu0026quot; is an understatement. At every juncture the film screamed its torpid theme.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film alludes several times to an underrated hitchock flick called u0026quot;ropeu0026quot;. Despite the allusions, the film doesnu0026#39;t even come close to Ropeu0026#39;s level of philosophy, morality, or thrills. Instead it borrows a couple ideas, mixes in a few of the cheesier elements of mediocre American thrillers (see u0026quot;Screamu0026quot;) and comes out with absolute boredom.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere were a few elements that could have made this film great. The allusion to rope could have gone farther and actually translated the film into a modern adaptation. One element that has changed since the time of rope is the perceived value of u0026quot;fameu0026quot;. The film touched on this, but didnu0026#39;t carry anything through. The thing that could have been done right was translating the fame into a postmodern context. The killer claims he wants fame, but he tries to setup the professor as the culprit for all the murders. This could have actually been an excellent concept if the film had decided to take into account the two realities it exists in, namely: The reality of the film, wherein the professor would take the blame, and secondly the reality of the film as watched by the audience, where the killer could find fame without cost. Indeed, this would have been a clever concept that perhaps would have carried this over into the intellectual genre. Instead, the director has his character act inconsistently and later claim that he wants to be pursued by the FBI u0026quot;because itu0026#39;s part of the gameu0026quot;. The result is that the killer comes off as an absolute idiot, which is unfortunate because our interest has been staked in him being clever enough to pull something entertaining off.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTo go back to the comment that this film is so unlike the rest of sundanceu0026#39;s depressing flicks, Iu0026#39;m going to have to disagree. This having passed for an intellectual thriller is several times more depressing than boys donu0026#39;t cry.”