Why so much hype?

Just perfect...

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

If you thought this film would be good for a laugh, you're mistaken. It's really bad, but it doesn't cross that threshold like Birdemic.A lot of the stuff is professionally done. The acting is mixed, some good actors, some bad, but the bad is not enough to ruin the picture. The sound is fairly clear, the lighting is fine, there are no technical gaffes.The dialogue has a strange feeling like it was written by someone who isn't a native speaker. The grammar is correct, but the usage is off. This is not saying that non- native English speakers can't write English dialogues, but natural sounding dialogues are no easy feat that even Hollywood hires dialogue specialists. There is another layer of strangeness in the dialogue in that it feels like it is influenced by TV and films rather than regular speech. It's not enough to be a deal-breaker, but it was noticeable enough for me.No biggie, it was fine.Which leaves us with the plot. It is so contrived to the point of being unbelievable.Here comes the spoilers:Four youths in a sauna. The drunk one leaves and drops some stuff outside the door. He didn't know where to put a portable staircase, so he decides to put it as a doorstopper for the sauna door. He then leaves and goes into a drug-induced deep sleep. Now the door is not completely jammed, so one of the 3 left in the sauna open the door a little and close it, for no reason (supposedly to allow one of the girls to leave to talk to her drunk boyfriend) - this action drops the stairs a little more. Then the girl, who insists that she doesn't want to leave, goes to the door, opens it and shakes it a little so that the stairs slide a little more and jam the door completely. Yes, she went to the door, opened it while saying that she doesn't want to go out.There are too many ridiculous improbabilities that we have to accept and it goes beyond what is acceptable. The drunk wakes up and goes outside the sauna, but that's exactly when the uncle decides to launch fireworks. So the movie is how they panic in the sauna and turn on each other. Unlike other films, there's no "let's not turn on each other" speech. A girl skips all that and smashes her friend with a rock to the head. What? Why?There are random subplots that don't add anything to the story. The main girl takes prescription drugs for mental illness. That's a thread that goes nowhere.They try all kinds of escape plans, firstly shaking the door, running shoulder barges, breaking the window's glass, shorting the fuse, screaming, etc. The guy in the sauna fights the steamer and causes an explosion. The force of the explosion, with some shaking, helps open the door. One girl escapes, she looks back to see her friend completely fried from the explosion, so she goes to drink water, gets her pills.... AND that was just her imagination.She was just hallucinating. That didn't happen. Oh, but wait... the explosion really happened. What?Yes, the explosion happened. Her friend really got fried. What she saw was in her hallucination was real. But she didn't actually go out.It's such terrible editing that one of my friends thought she had gone out, got water and then came back for her friends, locking herself accidentally again.The story is so contrived that this is not a bad guess. The reality is that someone hallucinated something, but 50% of the hallucination was real.Ultimately, it's a horror-thriller, but it's not fun, scary nor thrilling. It's just a bunch of kids screaming in a sauna. They scream for help, then they yell at each other, then go back to screaming for help.Being in a room watching this film simulates this experience very well, but no one will hear your screams.

I must admit that I had no idea what this movie was about, as I hadn't even read the synopsis of the movie, nor did I have any prior knowledge about the movie. But still, it appeared to be a horror movie, so I took a chance and sat down to watch it.Right, and now that I have, I have to ask myself one question; why? This movie was so weak in plot that it had more holes than a Schweiz cheese. I mean, a group of people in a cabin somewhere get stuck in a sauna that gradually increase in temperature. Sure. Why not?The storyline in "247°F" was so simplistic that it was almost an insult to the audience. And it offers nothing, absolutely nothing, to challenge the intellect of the viewers in any possible way. This is simply just disable your brain, lean back and watch the movie. But don't expect to be blown away, because "247°F" will not do so in any manner.As for the acting in the movie, well I will say that people were doing adequate jobs with the limitations of the script and the storyline. However, the characters were awfully genetic and mundane.For a horror / thriller then "247°F" was just as generic as they come, and it offered very little in terms of entertainment or in terms of being innovative in the genre. There is nothing new to be seen here actually.If you enjoy a good horror movie, then do yourself a favor and spend your time, money and effort on something else, because "247°F" is hardly worth the effort.

As a devout Horror fan, I watch many films of all kinds and sub-genres, and try to make a point of experiencing as many different types as possible. More often than not, I find myself disagreeing with IMDb's reviews and ratings. However, when it comes to this film, I can easily understand why your usual spectator would be unhappy.Many Horror films fail to achieve the full effect of their potential on account of failing to suspend disbelief, or in other words – even if the acting is phenomenal and the characters are realistic, human and lovable, the presented scenario is too "far from home", esoteric and fantastic to make the audience really relate and imagine themselves in the same situation (for instance, any vampire/zombie/monster film, most torture-porn and even most killer/slasher films). 247°F, on the other hand, suffers from the exact opposite problem – it describes a situation which feels way too ordinary, therefore not scary. Also, if seems very weird and unrealistic for things to escalate so drastically. I mean really – a guy knocks into a ladder, the ladder falls and blocks the door to the sauna while it's on full steam? What's next? World epidemic starting because someone drank milk which was 5 hours past the expiration date?In a way, the film felt like it was too long, sometimes to the point of boredom. Way too much time spent watching the sauna people sweat to death. However, in a way – it was also too short. Especially with the build-up from the beginning. Having given that much room to Jenna's story, I feel the dialogues between her and Renee were too short, with some drastic out-of-place escalations. However – I do consider one thing in particular to be sort of an Easter egg for us Horror fan, and therefor a consolation prize. Throughout the film, we see many aspects of the Teen/Slasher sub-genre. The banal rolls of the characters (drunken/stoner jerk, good guy, good girl (troubled) and good girl's hot best friend who's dating jerk) all feel only too familiar, and many of the shots are simply screaming for "psycho-killer emerges from behind-bush hiding and slashes gut". And yet, 247°F is not at all a Slasher. More like a disaster film with some Slasher elements. Not exactly Horror.Having said that about the screenplay and direction, I think the acting was all it'd meant to be. Same can be said for the cinematography. Also, nice attempts to make the film as close as possible to a single- location-shooting film. I only wish the story would've been better and scarier.All in all, I can't say I didn't enjoy the film, but I also can't fully recommend it. If you're a devout Horror fan – watch it for the above- mentioned Easter egg. If not – I'd say watch it in order to give it a chance, but I personally won't be telling my friends to watch it.

From the beginning to the end totally uninteresting movie. I mean who goes 3 times in the sauna for 1 night? They go to sauna, then lake to "cool off", then again sauna to "wamp up", again lake to "cool off" and finally sauna again?! Come on... I believe most of the people who have seen it knew that Michael didn't trap them inside. Only thing that casted doubt is when Wade took shovel and started digging. I mean they start firework same second when Michael came to the house? Really? Classic... It may be based on a true story, but I really doubt firework and other things were also based on that. Another thing I don't understand is why do they have firework when party is inside the club? I give it rating 5. Almost average