Its enough to put one off jury service for life: the psychopath you sent down resurfaces in your local community to hunt down and execute both you and your fellow jurors. Its an intriguing idea thats unfortunately mangled in Twelve, a low rent horror vehicle hampered by a seemingly non-existent budget, ropey storytelling and performances that veer between varnished and barking.
Actually, that may be a bit unfair, as Twelve is surely intended as nothing more than your bog standard student horror flick. Yet while its given a slight lease of life by effective on-location photography, its hamstrung by a set-up thats incoherent to the point of non-existent, beginning with a lethargic credits sequence interspersed with shots of an unidentified miscreant being transported to prison in the back of a police car.
Fleeting, jittery images hint at something unpleasant but thats as far as it goes; frustratingly, were left to make it up ourselves through bits and pieces of dialogue as an FBI Agent Naughton (Steven Brand) arrives in a backwater desert town, investigating several recent disappearances. Have those involved been murdered? Is there a link to the trial of notorious sex offender Leonard Karlsson? Waitress Claire (Emily Hardy) is certainly suspicious of a red pick-up truck that, she says, had earlier attempted to run down boyfriend Shane (Josh Nuncio) but friend Vicki (Mercedes McNab, of Buffy fame) is cynical until of course the body count starts to ramp up, and a vital link is established between the victims.
A vital yet somewhat implausible link that is. Surely even Scooby Doo would have less of a problem establishing the connection in such a tiny community, where everyone sees to know each other (incidentally, surely this would also have led to the least impartial jury ever?). But then its pure assumption that the jurors ever did know each other; the incoherent plotting never establishes a sense of continuity or logic with regards to the setting or its inhabitants. And while the film references come thick and fast (a bit of Duel here; a bit of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre there), no definitive explanation as to whats going on ever arrives.
The killer, meanwhile, in a desperate attempt at personality, pinches peoples faces (he obviously got fashion tips off Hannibal Lecter rather than Gok Wan), ensuring a climactic plunge into DIY torture that would be offensive in its amateurishness were it not so dull. Still, its all relative isnt it? Much like its central monster, Twelve is proud to steal the identities of higher budgeted slasher flicks and pass them off as its own; just dont expect their style or élan (aside from an opening shotgun blast to the head thats brilliantly nasty).
Overall Verdict: While its low-budget enthusiasm is commendable, its the derivative nature and sloppy narrative of Twelve, rather than financial prerequisites, that ultimately prevent it from becoming a cult hit in waiting. After all, while money may not buy you everything, surely a bit more imagination and storytelling nous cost nothing at all?
Special Features:
Beneath the Skin
A Shotgun in the Head
Make-up FX Gallery
Trailer
Commentary
Reviewer: Sean Wilson