You have no idea how much anxiety I had when I saw this one lurking about. You see, way back when, in the early part of the twenty first century, there was a webcomic named Something Positive. And it’s still out there. It’s well known for being…irreverent…at its high points. Anyway, one of the storylines revolved around the main characters putting together a musical theatrical production. This musical extravaganza was a musical about the crucifixion of Christ, and it was entitled “Nailed! The Musical”. So imagine my incredible alarm when I found a copy of a movie called “Nailed”.
And imagine my equally incredible relief when I discovered that this version of “Nailed” was just an urban crime drama. A drug bust goes awry for two young criminals, ostensibly in L.A. (based on the appearance of the Hollywood sign and all the palm trees I’m pretty sure we’re not, in fact, in Rhode Island.), and while on the run from the cops, they hole up in a boarded-up, abandoned house. And what they find in this abandoned house is going to shake even these two to their core.
Which, frankly, is a great concept. This is not your standard urban crime drama, not by any stretch. They’ve added an interesting and unsettling new dynamic to the mix and I have to applaud them for that. Which means the only thing left to determine is how well this mix has been executed. And in all honesty, the first half is done quite well. There’s plenty of tension here, and even a couple good scares. And they’ve managed to execute all this inside an extremely compact environment. Most of the action in this movie takes place in that abandoned house.
And the last half will actually outperform the first half, allowing for some great twists, surprises, and a double handful of outright scares. It’s just fantastic what they did here–some unbelievably scary stuff can be found in the last half of “Nailed”. All in all, I’m suitably impressed. “Nailed” takes what should have been your simple ordinary everyday crime drama and infuses it with a few choice horrific elements to make a new and blackly exciting whole.
