bree1981’s review published on Letterboxd:
I was browsing my DVD shelf's looking for some good Friday night viewing when I spotted this, still in it's cellophane wrapping, it's probably been sat there untouched for going on 10 years but I noticed Todd Gaines had it on his 'movies you should watch' list, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.
Directed by Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Deep Blue Sea) around the start of the downturn in his career, this is a serial killer thriller with elements of a slasher style whodunnit and features a solid cast. Kathryn Morris stars as trainee FBI profiler Sara Moore, she's part of a class headed up by controversial teacher Harris (Val Kilmer), who likes to put his trainees through real life reconstructions to help with their training. For their last assignment, the class is taken to the remote island of Oniega where the must catch fake serial killer 'The Puppeteer' by investigating the clue's left by Harris. Thing's don't go according to plan however when the group discover there is a real killer in their midst, picking them of one by one and they must work together to discover who it is before there is no one left.
This is an enjoyable little thriller that keeps you guessing right up to the final reveal and I must admit that I fell for a few of the red herring's that it throws in along the way. The film also features some genuinely creepy sequences from the atmospheric opening to the scene where a certain character is strung up like a puppet, there should be enough here for horror fans as well and there's a really cool underwater standoff at the end of the film which felt fresh and original. The actors also put in good work with the likes of Christian Slater, LL Cool J, Clifton Collins Jr and Eion Bailey all showing enough shades of grey that anyone of them could be the killer, I've no idea what Jonny Lee Miller's accent was all about though.
Overall, this is definitely worth a watch if you are willing to ignore the pretty shoddy effects (boat blowing up scene, I'm looking at you). It has some fun death scenes, features good performances and builds up the suspense until the final showdown, an enjoyable Friday night movie.