What could "Identity" have done better?

  Earlier this week we started talking about the movie Identity and I talked about the things that did not work about it. (If you have not read the previous post please do so now because I am just picking up where I left off with minimal recapping.) The movie had some major plot gaps and the identity of the one killer personality did not make sense. Despite the movie's failings I do like it. The movie was trying and I give it credit for that. Several movies, especially in the Horror genre, don't try anything new at all and just churn out the same tired crap that everyone has seen already. Identity wasn't very good but it had some interesting ideas and the potential for greatness was there. Today we'll talk about what could have been done to make the movie better.

  Before I go into the potential of the movie I need to address the question, is Identity scary? No. Not in the way it wants to be, at least. There are some hints at a larger issue that the movie never covered or dealt with that I believe would have made a far scarier movie.



  For starters, the focus of the movie could have benefited from some close scrutiny. The movie focuses on finding one killer personality from Malcolm River's 11 different identities. I believe that such a narrow focus was a shortsighted mistake. Especially since not all ten kills were committed by little Timmy. In my previous post I stated that the five off camera kills were committed by Timmy and were the least interesting kills of the movie.

 However, the other five kills were more interesting because they were not committed by Timmy (remember I took credit away from Timmy for the deaths of his parents on account of Timmy's lack of telepathy and omniscience). They were killed by other personalities and their deaths are as follows: Alice died as a result of being hit by the limo that Ed was driving. Accident. George was killed when Larry, trying to drive off in his truck, hit George and slammed him into a garbage dumpster. Accident.

  Act three of the movie is very intense as Rhodes is suspected of being the killer and three deaths occur within minutes of each other. Larry is shot by Rhodes who is looking for the keys to Larry's truck because his cover (pretending to be a corrections officer) is blown. Ed and Rhodes shoot each other once Ed learns the truth of the situation and they both die.

 Larry, Rhodes, Paris, and Ed (from left to right).

  Of 10 personalities that are killed, Larry kills 1, Ed kills 2, and Rhodes kills 2. Do see where I'm going with this? The movie spent so much time focusing on one killer that it didn't notice that four of the personalities were doing the killing. Identity had a great opportunity to tell a scary story about how easy it is for one person to take the life of another. The personalities were normal people. I said last time that the thing that scares me most is what one normal person can do to another normal person. The scary statement that this movie could have made is that anyone can kill. Or as Tom Hardy put it in the movie Basic, "Anyone is capable of murder."

  That's a scary thought to me. Far scarier than the shy little kid being the killer because anyone who watches movies or remembers the phrase "its always the quiet ones" could have predicted the end of Identity. But in a world where anyone and everyone is capable of taking someone's life, no one can predict who-done-it. That frightening message is what the movie cold have left the audience with. That is what could have put the fear into this movie. But unfortunately Identity remains a missed opportunity.

  I haven't decided what Horror movie I'll look at next. Right now I'm debating between Event Horizon and the Saw trilogy (yes I said trilogy). I'll figure that out next week and get back to you with a small break from Horror, hopefully on Monday. Have a good weekend!