Ten (2017) Reviews

• Incredibly faithful to the book by Gretchen McNeil.

  caitlinobrient2017-09-17

  "Ten: Murder Island" is an Incredibly faithful adaptation of the book ("Ten") by Gretchen McNeil. The story is a modern day version of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." The film is beautifully shot, well cast and acted, and a ton of FUN! It's a total throwback to my fave 90s horror slasher flicks of my childhood ("Scream," "I Know What You Did Last Summer," etc.). Really hope to see more from this director and talented cast.

• One-By-One

  maarck62017-09-17

  Ten young adults, fresh out of Mariner high school, arrive at an isolated hotel where they are the only residents, having been invited by a trendy hipster, whose invitations to party cannot be ignored. Soon after the obligatory bickering one of the guests is found hanging from a stairway. As the murders and disappearances continue to escalate so does the suspicion between the survivors and old grievances rise to the top, and soon the survivors are at each other's throats. "Ten" is a movie based on a book that copies the plot of Agatha Christie's classic novel "And Then There Will Be None/Ten Little Indians", right down to the deaths. However, what's a downer is that this movie doesn't really copy the ending of Christie's novel but instead copies the various previous movies' endings, which to those uninitiated, I won't give away. To help propel the novel forward, there is tension between the two lead characters Meg (China Anne McClain) and her ex-boyfriend (Rome Flynn), which is detailed by the pages of a girl's diary, a girl that had previously committed suicide, that are continuously found scattered about the household. Refreshingly, the leads here are black, instead of being the first kills, they may be the heroes. Or maybe not. Watch and see. Also fun to watch was Angie Q who is the only one at first to use her noggin to realize that being suspicious of her fellow classmates may be the smart way to go. All-in-all, a very entertaining movie, and while this plot has been ripped off dozens of times in the past, I just found this flick entertaining for what it was. It didn't bring anything new to the table, but it didn't subtract anything from it either. This is a movie meant for the early high school crowd, and I can't see why those wouldn't like it, although I don't know how it matches up against the book.