Identity (2003)

Directed by: James Mangold | 90 minutes | horror, thriller | Actors: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes, Alfred Molina, Clea DuVall, John C. McGinley, William Lee Scott, Jake Busey, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Rebecca de Mornay, Carmen Argenziano, Marshall Bell, Leila Kenzle, Matt Latvian

Multiple personality disorders are grateful ‘food’ for filmmakers. Such split personalities come in handy especially in thrillers; a killer with different identities, you can go either way with that. Director James Mangold – known for films like ‘Copland’, ‘Heavy’ and Girl, Interrupted’ – took the identity crisis of a dangerous killer as the starting point for his ingeniously crafted film ‘Identity’.

The tone is set at the start of the film. It’s dark, it’s pouring rain and the thunder god is rumbling around. In this storm, ten different people – including an arrogant Hollywood diva who has fallen from her pedestal and her driver, a newlywed couple, a former hooker and a cop who has to escort a deadly killer to another prison – end up in a motel. A colorful group that soon discovers that they have one common denominator and that is the red color of their blood. And that flows freely as the mysterious killer begins his slaughter. But with each victim, new questions arise. Who is the perpetrator of these massacres and why?

If you read a short summary of the film ‘Identity’, you think you are dealing with an average slasher film, but nothing could be further from the truth. Mangold has a second storyline, a man sentenced to death, who is helped by his psychiatrist with a last request for pardon, ingeniously incorporated into the plot. What the two storylines have to do with each other is actually the biggest puzzle of the film. Even more than the search for the killer.

‘Identity’ is a thriller that you have to stay with from the start and where the clues are in the details. Halfway through, it becomes clear that Mangold will eventually come with an all-revealing twist that will leave mouths open. That happens, but unlike many other thrillers that come up with such plot twists, Mangold does not immediately close his film. The revelation sets the story on a new track and he is still working on that too.

In addition, Mangold has managed to drum up a bunch of capable actors for this film, unlike the teenage stars who usually show up in slashers. With sounding names like Ray Liotta, John Cusack, Alfred Molina, Rebecca de Mornay, John C. McGinley and Amanda Peet, the director didn’t have to worry about the acting. Add to that the dark setting in a seedy motel, the original and intelligent script, the subtle nods to previous horror films (including ‘The Shining’) and the surprising ending and you have a horror film that quite transcends its genre.