When you think of Christmas horror, P2 (2007) probably isn’t the first movie that comes to mind. Its brief, nondescript title doesn’t exactly scream “holiday must-watch,” and it doesn’t overtly market itself that way. Still, it pops up each year in holiday horror conversations. At its core, it’s a tense cat-and-mouse chase through a dim, concrete parking garage, far from twinkling festive lights.
All She Wanted Was to Get Home for Christmas
It’s Christmas Eve, and the office is a ghost town. Even for a career-driven workaholic like Angela (Rachel Nichols), there comes a time when you have to leave. It’s getting late, and her colleagues have long since fled the building. Eager to get home and spend time with her family, Angela heads down to the parking garage for her getaway, only to discover, much to her frustration, that her car won’t start. Stranded in the cold, desolate parking garage, her plans are stuck in neutral with no way home.
The Parking Garage Predator That’s Just Too Quirky
Long before his Yellowstone days, Wes Bentley played a love-struck psycho who worked as a parking garage security guard named Thomas. Thinking he has just shown up to help, Angela believes she might just make it home to her family in time after all. But Thomas has no intention of fixing her car or letting her slip from his grasp, and with the parking garage locked down for the night, she’s not going anywhere.
Bentley’s character, Thomas, and his obsessive love for Angela simmer along like an advent calendar, opening small doors that offer just enough intrigue to maintain our curiosity but never enough to make a real impact. He’s a quirky, goofy villain who probably should have been cast as someone with a bit more menace to truly drive home this claustrophobic nightmare.
When Nichols’ Angela turns down his invitation to a quiet, candlelit dinner in his office under the watchful eyes of his Rottweiler, the helpful façade quickly begins to crack. Before she can fully register the danger, he’s already reaching for the chloroform.
When the Potential Gets Stuck Between the Pillars
P2 struggles with the problem of both main characters coming across as a bit too forgettable to give this single-location horror tale much staying power.
In Thomas’s deluded mind, he truly sees himself as Angela’s savior and protector, but the force behind his pursuit tends to waver just when the movie seems to find its stride, making it hard to keep a steady sense of momentum. Angela, meanwhile, doesn’t bring quite enough spark or emotional presence to carry the weight of the story, leaving the tension to flicker rather than fully burn.
Darting between the large concrete pillars of the parking garage, Angela desperately tries to escape, while Thomas drifts further into his own strange world, dancing around the office and lip-syncing to Elvis Presley Christmas tunes. The whole situation feels more like a standoff than the desperate, life-or-death struggle we were hoping for.
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