Alarmed (2014, directed by Matt Lofgren)


Samantha stands trial, accused of killing her father, mother, and two of her sisters.  She is acquitted.  Five years later, she’s trapped on the family yacht, stranded at sea with the ship’s onboard computer ordering her to remove her limbs and slash her face.  Every morning, she wakes up and it’s as if nothing happened.  But during the evening, she goes through the entire ritual again.  Samantha feels that she is being punished for murdering her family, except that Samantha did not murder her family.  While being tortured on the boat, she thinks back and tries to figure out who the guilty party actually was.

It’s an interesting idea but a dumb movie.  You’re stuck on a boat, far from civilization and medical help.  The only other person on the boat is your husband, who can’t help you because the boat’s onboard computer has locked him out of control room.  Are you going to chop off your finger just because a computer tells you to?  Are you going to saw off your hand, just because the computer says so?  The boat is also haunted by ghosts and I wish the movie had just focused on them instead of bringing in the computer and the time loop element.

The movie just doesn’t work.  The plot is overstuffed and the acting is terrible.  Try not to laugh when you hear the dialogue between the judges and the lawyers in the courtroom scene.  The yacht is a good location but a few long shots make it obvious that the yacht is not as far away from civilization as Samantha and her husband seem to think.

All in all, a misfire.