FOUR BOXES

At the outset, Four Boxes seems like a promisingly creepy little movie about three friends who want to claim their slice of the pie.  It doesn't really matter what kind of pie the world is serving as long as there's money, fame, or notoriety in it for them.  Amber (Terryn Westbrook) is an aspiring singer/songwriter/actress (i.e. a self-centered attention grubber), but the boys, Trevor (Justin Kirk) and Rob (Sam Rosen) are slightly less directed in their efforts.  Both have been intimately involved with Amber, and to make ends meet, they scour the obituaries, clean out the homes of people with no heirs, and sell the contents on eBay.  Just your normal, functional threesome!

 

While cleaning out an exceedingly unsettling estate, the three stumble upon a bookmarked web page leading them to a voyeuristic site called fourboxes.tv.  Unable to tear themselves away, our heroes are drawn into the dark world of Havoc, an unsavory character who seems entirely likely to be a serial killer.  Soon they're producing a little web fake-out of their own, but have they ventured too far into Havoc's universe?  As the old saying goes, if you play with fire, you're bound to get burned.

 

Though aspects of Four Boxes are legitimately funny, intriguing, and disturbing, it doesn't quite work as a whole.  The characters never seem like real people, and their dialogue sounds as though it came straight from the page (i.e. no one talks like this in real life).  Just as the characters wish they could be big stars, the movie itself remains something of a wannabe.  

 

Extra features include bloopers, deleted scenes, and the original theatrical trailer.