Very well executed

Let's be realistic.

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

When a killer kills a woman in an alley and brings her body with a severed arm to a movie theater, FBI Agent Brad Abraham (Michael Madsen) calls FBI Agent Jason Enola (Chris Penn) to help him in the investigation. Jason is an agent that destroyed his career and his family years ago obsessed to capture a serial killer; now the leads indicate that the same killer has just started a new crime spree. Soon the psychiatrist Dr. Alyce Robertson (Jennifer Dale) receives phone calls from the killer and she meets Abraham that asks her to talk to Jason. He asks to participate in a meeting with her patients William Frost (Chad McQueen); the agoraphobic Rachel Quinn (Terri Hawkes); Gail Morgan (Catherine Blythe); Jerry Saracen (Kenneth McGregor); and Eileen Gibbs (Thea Gill). Now Jason suspects that one of them might be the serial killer. Who might be? "Papertrail" is a low-budget thriller with a terrible story and an awful conclusion. The characters are poorly developed and Michael Madsen has a very small part to give his name to the credits. The explanation given by the killer is laughable. But the attitude of Dr. Robertson summoning her patients in the middle of the night is ridiculous. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "Mensageiro da Morte" ("Messenger of the Death")

This movie is not as bad as some would have you believe, at least not in my opinion. As a self confessed fan of both Chris Penn and Michael Madsen I may come at this with a biased view; but for a low budget thriller it is not at all bad. A serial killer has resurfaced after a 4 year absence and is once again tormenting a burnt out, loose cannon FBI agent. Will he be able to track down the killer before they go underground again? Matters are complicated when it appears that the killer is changing their usual pattern and is now somehow tied up with a female psychologist and her latest group of patients. To say much more would give away too much of the plot, which although not the most original ever, is the basis for an enjoyable and suitably atmospheric thriller. The acting is good and both Chris Penn and Michael Madsen are their usual charismatic selves. Of the peripheral characters perhaps the most interesting to watch is Chad McQueen both for the revelation of his character's storyline, which is not fully disclosed until the almost the end, and because he is the son of Steve McQueen (talk about a hard act to follow!).

They were selling this one at the supermarket for $3.99, the same price as the six-roll package of toilet paper. I made the wrong choice, as usual. A gruesome film noir about a serial killer who hacks off pieces of his victims' bodies before killing them. Hard to tell what was going on because both the lighting and sound recording were so poor, but there was some connection to a psychotherapist and her group therapy patients. Needless to say, lots of people had to die before the killer is identified and caught. (Partial spoilers ahead.) Don't bother trying to guess whodunit, because it is impossible to tell until the last minute, when the missing information is abruptly supplied out of nowhere. There is an (unintentionally) hilarious sequence in which hero Chris Penn, who, let's face it, is built more like John Belushi than like Arnold Schwarzenegger, is shot in the chest, injected with a sedative and tied down in the ambulance taking him to the hospital -- but powered only by his obsessive hatred of the killer, he manages to break free from his restraints, overpowers the ambulance attendants, drives off at high speed, gets into a collision with two or three other vehicles, abandons the ambulance and runs to the location where he believes the killer is located, all based only on one of those infallible "hunches" law enforcement officers always have in these films. Yes, he manages to thwart the killer's attempt to kill the final victim, who then remarks that "we need to get you to a hospital." The toilet paper I could have bought would not only have been more useful than this film, but it likely would have had superior narrative and cinematic qualities. Live and learn.

This is a low budget serial killer movie that is low budget and not the best quality acting either. In most serial killer movies, there is a twist or the killer is one of the characters you get to know. I won't give the ending away other than the "who is the killer" at the end of the movie is badly done (overworked) and leaves you pretty disappointed. I am also continually amazed at the stamina shown from gun shot victims (observe Mr Penn towards the end).I am not sure what role Michael Marsden is playing in this movie. His character has no real bearing on the plot and fades in and out (and disappears before the end).Its not big budget, has no big names and really is a TV/Video movie at best. Expect nothing flash and you won't be disappointed. There is a slight story there for the viewing, but its nothing that hasn;t been seen and done over and over and over (and much better as well)Not worth the effort