Customer Reviews

Fingerprints

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I was able to catch Fingerprints over the weekend at Texas Frightmare Weekend and have already pre-ordered my DVD. This movie rocked! I didn't know what to expect, and I knew it was based on a Texas urban legend, but I was surprised at where the movie took me.

The ghost kids are pretty creepy and it was great seeing actors like Loud Diamond Philips. I must admit I thought I had predicted what was going to happen but I am happy to report I was wrong.

If you're in the mood for a good old fashioned ghost/slasher horror movie then Fingerprints should do the trick.

Starring Leah Pipes, Kristin Cavallari, Josh Henderson, Andrew Lawrence, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Geoffrey Lewis. I saw the preview for this movie and thought it looked promising--like a decent low-budget ghost story. It starts off interesting enough...a high school girl (Pipes) comes out of rehab and moves to the town of Emerald. Her sister (Cavallari) tells her the train tracks are haunted because a bus full of school children were hit by a train years earlier. She attempts to adjust to her new life and she catches the attention of two of her male classmates (Henderson and Lawrence). Life becomes even more complicated when she starts seeing a girl who had died in the bus crash and so she now must find out what actually happened to the children who died in the crash.

The first half builds like it will be a spooky ghost-story. The second half of the movie is were it falls apart, because all of a sudden it becomes a typical teenage slasher movie--a badly done Nightmare on Elm Street rip-off. The deaths are ridiculous and unoriginal and seem to come out of nowhere. The movie has a very made-for-t.v feel, except for the strong language. The lead actress is quite good and I always love to see Lou Diamond Philips and Geoffrey Lewis; however, some of the other actors inexperience (especially the mother) showed through too much.

Overall, if you know the tale or just want to watch it out of curiosity--rent it first. It's a two-in-a-half star movie, I just bumped it up because of the actors.

The title of "Fingerprints" refers to the marks left by the ghosts of dead children when they make their appearance. There was a tragedy in the small town the movie takes place in when, decades ago, a train slammed into a school bus that was stalled on the tracks, killing everyone onboard; in the modern day, there's a legend that if you park a car on those tracks, it will be pushed off the tracks and to safety by an invisible prescence - only fingerprints on the bumper or car's back remain, indicating it was the ghosts of the crash victims, trying to prevent any other accident from occuring on that spot. But what's always apparantly been just an urban legend starts to come true...

The catalyst for the change comes when a girl named Melanie (well played by Leah Pipes) returns home after a stay in an out-of-town hospital. When Melanie and her friends try out the local legend, the car actually does move off the tracks. And shortly thereafter more supernatural occurences start happening. Melanie was in the hospital after an incident that left her legally dead for two minutes; it seems that her brush with death has resulted in her being able to interact with spirits more closely, and once near those haunted tracks... However, things may not be what they seem. It turns out that there are rumors that the crash all those years ago never happened at all, although how or why someone would fake something like that is unknown. In addition to the spirit appearances, new deaths start to occur as an unknown assailant begins slashing through various people connected in one way or another with the tracks and/or the legend.

"Fingerpints" blends its 'haunting' story with 'stalk-and-slash' elements very well, coming out with a distinctive movie based on a fresh storyline. And it does tie the different plot threads together in the end, leaving off with a powerful finale plus an opening for a possible follow-up (which I personally would be in favor of, although it might be tricky to reopen one of the plot threads that seems pretty much resolved). In addition to Pipes's performance, the rest of the cast does a good job too, with Lou Diamond Phillips deserving special mention for his role as a teacher/guidance counsellor at the local high school.

Aside from a couple of film festival appearances, this one went direct to DVD. Direct-to-DVD titles have an unjustly bad rep; personally I've always thought there were quite a few gems in among the weaker entries, but over the last little while the ratio of quality direct-DVD titles has been picking up. With the number of theatrically released horror movies in a bit of a dry spell, it's good to know that the original DVD releases are picking up the slack.

Based on an urban legend about ghosts pushing cars on railroad tracks, Fingerprints (2006) is a tale of suspense featuring a teenage girl playing detective. The story seems padded with clichéd plot elements, to flesh out what is a rather barebones premise. It all somehow plays like a bad episode of Scooby Doo, with some problematic acting performances.

According to legend, in the town of Emerald, Texas, a school bus loaded with kids was hit by a train at the railroad crossing. After this tragedy, supposedly if you park on the tracks and put the car in neutral, the ghosts of dead children will push the car to safety, sometimes leaving fingerprints on the vehicle. After being in rehab, teenager Melanie Wood (Leah Pipes) rejoins her family, who have recently moved to Emerald. Mel is well received by her older sister Crystal (Kristin Cavallari) and her father (Darryl Cox), but her mother (Ginger Gilmartin) appears to have some trust issues.

The story briefly touches on Melanie's time in school, where she gets some counseling from Doug Perrywine (Lou Diamond Phillips), but Mel's fascination with the ghostly legend, becomes the basis of the film, as she repeatedly finds herself in a car parked on the railroad crossing, or hanging around the old abandoned train station, sometimes with her new friend Penn (Josh Henderson). When Mel surprisingly experiences the phenomena of having her car pushed off the tracks, she also has an encounter with a little girl named Julie (Sydnee Harlan), that leads her to Mary Pearl (Sally Kirkland), the daughter of the conductor of the train that struck the school bus. After Mel has a supernatural experience involving Julie, she becomes convinced that the little girl is asking for help, and during her investigation, discovers that Mary Pearl had a sister named Julie, who was killed in the bus accident.

The level of action ramps up in the third act, and while the excitement is certainly welcome, the writing doesn't do a credible job of connecting together the various action sequences. In stretching out a small story into a full length feature, the writers must believe that they can get away with anything, as the big reveal about the bus accident, long hidden crimes, and a secret dungeon, are pretty laughable. The motivation for all the mayhem involving the construction of a new roadway, is like something right out of Scooby Doo.

Seventeen year old Leah Pipes seems mature for her age, and does a satisfactory job in the lead role, while an animated Sally Kirkland does her best to make things fun. The writing isn't as kind to some of the other characters, who come off as rather cartoonish. The practical effects are mostly good, with a couple of gory kills. Some of the other effects, like speeded up footage of a moving train, and some fast cut editing, aren't very convincing. Apparently intended for an audience that isn't very critical, Fingerprints throws a lot of things into the mix, trying to keep things interesting, but ultimately delivers almost as many laughs as thrills, earning a rating of 2.5 stars.

Early into it, I got the vibe this was going to be a stinker of a movie. It would occasionally seem to redeem itself because of the relatively strong performance from the main character, but then something (or someone) stupid would come along to mess it up. The biggest problem is the characters. Everyone is basically a caricature. Overly attentive and compassionate teacher? Check. Cold-hearted parent that suspects their child of being a junkie? Check. Horny teen punk who attacks the attractive new girl? Check. Good looking jock with the heart of gold? Check. Small-town hick cop who thinks he's Columbo? Check and mate. I could have overlooked the silly plot (most horror movies don't exactly excel at this department), but I kept marveling at how bad the characters were. Not bad acting per se (though some were doozies for sure)... Just badly written characters.

I get that its been fashionable for years now to make movies out of urban legends. Some have succeeded with the formula (Candyman comes to mind), but most movies that try, like this one, end up being worse than forgettable... I'll always remember this movie for how annoyed I was by it. Why am I giving this 2 stars instead of 1? Leah Pipes single-handedly saves it from 1-star because she puts in a pretty good performance (given the material she was handed) and did make herself into a likable lead character. Alas, she's the only very faint bright spot in this otherwise dreary movie.

I just watched this movie via Amazon Prime Instant and I have to say it was excellent! THIS is a film and how a horror film SHOULD be done! Picture it: You are a teenage girl who takes some bad dope with your boyfriend. HE dies in the ambulance and you ALMOST die yourself... then end up in rehab. You have a daddy who loves you, a mom who is a total bitch (AND a bad actress), and an older sister who is actually cool! You get out of rehab to find your entire family has moved to a one horse town that if ya blink while passing through, you will miss it. The sleepy little town of Emerald has a dark secret in its' past. There was a horrible accident involving a rainy night, a school bus full of children, a malfunctioning railroad crossing, and one train. OR WAS THERE? HOW the story unfolds and who tells it is the unique part of this movie. Local legend says if you put your car in neutral and sit at the crossing, the childrens ghosts will push you across. Well, THEY PUSH! A coverup, a killer, a teen who has had a near death experience and now sees one of the children reaching out from beyond to enlist her help in getting some justice. ALL elements that make this a must see movie! If I had to take any points away it would be for the ending, as I truly believed the killer would be haunting the tracks. Watch and let me know what you think!

This movie was very different than what I thought it would be. I wasn't sure how good it would be because usually the better the cover looks the worse the movie actually is. This movie was actually pretty good and great for a low budget film. It did give me goose bumps a few times and had me guessing. I liked that this wasn't just a scary movie and it actually had a murder mystery to it. There was very little nudity (and when I say very little I mean one part and is like a 5 to 6 second breast shot) which I also liked because for some reason most low budget films always have a lot of nudity in it because they think it will be better or because it will get more people to watch it. There were parts when certain characters died that I was kind of like "they could have done that better," but it wasn't the way the character was killed, it was the way the character acted. There were only a couple unbelievable parts that you could tell the character lacked in acting skills, but it wasn't horrible enough for me to stop watching it. The ending was pretty good too. The only thing I didn't like about the ending was that they should have just ended it before they showed the two new characters making fun of the ghost story at the train tracks. It almost ruined the good note the ending left off on. However, this was a movie worth watching, but I would not spend more than $5 to own it.

"Fingerprints" title explains it. The initial story is good, bus crash...ghosts...so much could have been done but just didnt deliver. Had to much story about the crash itself and next to no action. Acting wasnt to bad the fxs were ok. Just overall a boring movie.

A 50yo urban legend, a masked killer, and a dark secret held by an entire town combine to form the story for FINGERPRINTS. A recovering teen girl (Leah Pipes) returns to her family after rehab, only to be plunged into the middle of the ghostly mystery. Is the legend for real? Are the restless spirits of long-dead children roaming the steets of Emerald? Could be! Lou Diamond Phillips is the ill-fated school guidance counselor. Geoffrey Lewis is the town drunk (w/ a major piece of the puzzle). Also starring über-hottie Kristin Cavallari as Crystal! My goodness...

The first half of this movie seemed like it had potential and was interesting. Unfortunately, about halfway through it became predictable and very stupid. The laughable ending made it seem like a completely different movie by the time it was over. Too bad. Worth a watch if you're bored, but just don't expect much after it hits the halfway point.