ATM

Slasher Trash with Panache?

Review: JA Kerswell

An effectively claustrophobic slasher, ATM wrings every drop of suspense from its wintery setting. A trio of young office workers are trapped in a cabin by a Parka-wearing psychopath when they stop to get some cash in the middle of the night. Although it risks being derailed by some glaring implausibilities —if you can look past these it is well -made enough to keep viewers hooked. 
 
Twenty-something corporate worker David (Brian Geraghty) discovers his office crush Emily (Alice Eve) is working her last day on the job ahead of the Holidays. His friend and co-worker Corey (Josh Peck) encourages him to pluck up the courage to ask her out on a date. After flirting at the office Christmas party, David offers to drive Emily home—but is frustrated when Corey reminds him he is also his ride home and tags along.
 
Further to David’s annoyance, and well past midnight, Corey insists they stop at a pizza place en route, which only takes cash. The trio take a detour to an ATM inside a small security building in the centre of a parking lot. Once inside, they notice a figure wearing a Parka coat that obscures their face, watching them from the darkness of the lot. Initially spooked, and with growing horror, they realise the figure’s murderous intent as they watch a dog walker being butchered. It becomes clear they are trapped by a deadly predator waiting for them outside in the cold …

Arguably, ATM might have worked better as a short—but at 90 minutes, it doesn’t really outstay its welcome. If you missed the sinister opening montage—showing someone poring over architectural plans—you could be forgiven for thinking you are watching the beginnings of a sweet rom-com. Something that is thrown into even sharper relief by the film’s effectively cynical ending. Although sometimes farfetched, it is a cleverly constructed and engrossing thriller. The film’s three central actors are all engaging and likeable—even Corey’s bro-like buffoonery. The dialogue by Chris Sparling and Ron Tippe is believable and gives the characters a sense of being real people rather than the cyphers you often find in slasher movies. This, of course, helps the viewer be more invested in their fates. Various characters come into their orbit and fall foul of the killer, but it soon becomes apparent that they can only rely on themselves to survive.

ATM takes the faint paranoia that everyone feels when using a cash dispenser in case anyone is watching and amps it way up. It has the positive feel of a 1970s TV movie with its limited location and concentration on a small group of characters. It is also reminiscent of JAWS (1975)—with its vast, dark parking lot a substitute for the ocean and its assailant silent, deadly and sharklike.  

Admittedly, the film needs a number of contrivances to work, and it is probably wise not to think too carefully about them. The three characters leave their mobile phones in the car only by a sheer stroke of luck on the killer’s part. However, that’s easy to give a pass to. Otherwise, the film would presumably only run half an hour!  Although clearly reminiscent of the killer’s disguise in Jamie Blanks’ URBAN LEGEND (1998), the Parka coat is still effectively creepy here.
  
Chris Sparling had some form with this type of claustrophobic setting, as he wrote the equally effective BURIED (2010)—where Ryan Reynolds spends the entire movie trying to escape from a coffin. Given how well ATM is put together, it is surprising it is David Brooks’ sole directorial effort—although he went on to produce Zachary Donohue’s effective web slasher THE DEN (2013).
 
ATM was filmed in 2010 in Canada over 20 days. It had a brief theatrical run in some territories in the spring of 2012 (after a VOD bow), including New York and Los Angeles. In a negative review in The Star-Ledger, critic Stephen Whitty said: “There are one or two small scares, and the score by David Buckley is nicely unsettling. But none of this builds to anything or engenders any real suspense.” In The Los Angeles Times, Glenn Whipp was equally unimpressed and inexplicably called the film “tedious”. Elizabeth Weitzman, in The Daily News, called it an example of “claustro cinema” but—despite praising a few elements—was largely negative in her appraisal. ATM, however, seemed to attract better reviews when it was released to home video in the summer of 2012. The review in The Record said it “… delivers subtlety and shocks.” 
 
Although, as one critic said, ATM has a “blizzard of implausibilities”, it is still a flurry of darkly festive fun. 

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