A movie that cost US$3 million (S$3,877,500) to make and earned a miserable US$2,034 (S$2,629) in the opening weekend, according to figures on imdb.com, is an unqualified flop commercially.

Artistically, ATM has very little to recommend it either, especially when in Singapore senseless killings are rarer than a ring of fire eclipse.

The screenwriter of Buried, Chris Sparling has again decided to confine his script’s characters into yet another small area – yup, an ATM kiosk.

After attending their company’s Christmas party, David scores a chance to send Emily home, but Corey insists on tagging along. Due to Corey’s insensitive and demanding personality, they have to stop by an ATM kiosk for him to withdraw cash for pizza.

A stranger in a hooded parka suddenly appears out of nowhere and positions himself right outside the ATM kiosk. Before they can identify the stranger’s motive, they witness him killing a random passerby viciously. The 3 then find themselves trapped in an isolated ATM kiosk with their car parked at quite a distance for no reason, with no heater to keep them warm in such a frigid weather, no mobile phones to call for help, and with a psychopathic killer waiting for them to emerge to repeat his killing spree.

Even though the stage was set for thrill and horror to kick in, our anticipation wasn’t fully satisfied. Other than experiencing a few pulse-racing moments due to the sudden and loud sound effects, the movie was neither exciting nor scary at all.

Besides, the inexplicable decisions made by the main characters make UrbanWire think that the movie characters are just plain foolish. Why would they decide to park their car so far away from the ATM kiosk when it was freezing outside? Why would the 3 colleagues stay and watch the repeated stabbing when they could have taken the chance to dash straight to the car and escape? Why didn’t they try to overpower the assailant, when there were 3 against 1 somewhat tired man?

Some may say that the movie would have been abnormally short if such coincidences didn’t happen, but there’s a limit to how much disbelief we are willing to suspend. For instance, if the place was insanely remote, why would there be a passerby walking his dog in the wee hours? Moreover, living in such a modern age, with everyone is so attached to their mobile phones, why would all three of the main characters leave their phone in the car? These situations just seemed too absurd and unbelievable. As much as the film tried to depict an intelligent plot, it wasn’t well developed in the movie and the silliness of the characters unintentionally made things appear amusing than terrifying.

The film was of course not all that bad. Director David Brooks did a commendable job with the constraints of the area and angles of the script, and executed his shots with creativity. The excellent cast that have been in the acting industry for quite some time, managed to bring out the essence of their characters; the dark figure being the textbook villain, David (Brian Geragthy) as the heroic main character, Emily (Alice Eve) as the attractive colleague, and Corey (Josh Peck) as the annoyance who causes trouble for everyone. Also, the dialogue was sufficient, allowing the story line to have a better flow and creating a good balance between the dialogue and action.

As mentioned earlier, the actors and actress were really engaged in their characters and portrayed their roles  convincingly. Scripted to be an awkward couple at the start of the show, David and Emily’s awkward conversations successfully made viewers cringe. Corey’s irksome personality was also carried out well  in the movie as his actions and behaviour was absolutely annoying.

These few plus points helped to stop people from walking out, but ultimately the script is key to what makes a film successful. Sadly in ATM, the weak writing seriously limited the Horror/Thriller movie that it could have been.

Movie: ATM
Rating: 1.5/5
Opens: May 24
Duration: 123 mins
Language: English
Age Rating: PG
Genre: Horror, Thriller

Directed by: David Brooks
Cast: Alice Eve, Brian Geraghty, Josh Peck