Perkins' 14 - 8 Films to Die For DVD Review
Perkins' 14 - 8 Films to Die For DVD Review
1 psycho, 14 zombies, incalculable terror
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Dwayne Hopper (Patrick O'Kane) lives with guilt every day of his life. Even though he is an able, intelligent, level-headed veteran police officer, he has never been able to catch the man who abducted his young son, Kyle. The horrible incident occurred 10 years ago in the sleepy town of Stone Cove, and was just one of 14 mysterious child-snatchings. The only clue left behind was the biting amputation of the villain's finger when Kyle tried to fight his way out of his kidnapper's clutches. After that, nothing.
Late at night while on duty watching a couple of prisoners, Dwayne begins to suspect that one of them, a seemingly mild-mannered local pharmacist going by the name of Ronald Perkins (Richard Brake), is responsible for more than just a traffic violation. Hopper's façade of fortitude quickly crumbles and he starts doing some pretty crazy things to prove his theory. Before the night is over, he will have his answers as to what happened to Kyle (C.J. Singer)… but not closure.
Meanwhile, Hopper's neglected wife and daughter are out in the dark getting the male attention they think they need. Janine (Mihaela Mihut), is in the throes of an extramarital affair with a younger man at a seedy motel, while rebellious 16-year-old Daisy (Shayla Beesley) is at an isolated flophouse with a 20-something guitar player and all-around bad boy named Eric (Michale Graves). Eventually, all four Hoppers come together in an extremely bloody hour of reckoning.
Much of Perkins' 14 is a dialogue-driven cat-and-mouse game between Hopper and Perkins, and fortunately both actors are up to the two-man task. The bespectacled Brake is especially compelling as the cool and calculating criminal who manages to slither into his opponent's fragile psyche, but O'Kane does a nice job or showing a father's grief — and then horror — at what has become of his precious son.
Sometimes slow-moving, Perkins' 14 is, at least, pretty original in its take on the mad scientist formula, it doesn't go for the easy out, and (refreshingly) there isn't much comic relief. Basic horror fans should like this one, since the story was one of 400 entries voted for the most at the production company's website's contest page.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson