This is a suspenseful film. It starts with a rainy night and a lonely hotel in the desert. The typical serial murder environment is heavily rendered, and then the story is slowly led to a climax through the mysterious deaths of the characters. The whole film is filled with an atmosphere of horror, and the suspense is so tight that the murderer is not revealed until the end. John Cusack, who plays the leading actor (the driver in the film), thinks: “Actually, I think I’m very smart. In the script of "ID", it is a wave of bizarre twists and turns, and the ending is completely unimaginable."
One of the biggest selling points of the film is the suspenseful storyline. And it is this "Agatha Christie" style murder that attracts producers and distributors. The film’s producer Cathy Conrad and director James Mangold are husband and wife in the industry. Conrad has supervised the famous horror film "Scream" series. The film and the all-star lineup of "Police Empire" began to collaborate, and other works include "Lost Soul Girl" starring Winona Reid and "Separated Love" starring sweet sister Meg Ryan.
Conrad first read the script of "Fatal ID" and was immediately fascinated. However, she thought this story was more suitable for the kind of small-scale independent production film. The ideal director is of course James Mangold, but Mangold had only directed his own scripts. Conrad tried to hand over the book to Mangold, and when he heard him say "Such a good story, if you dare to let others be the director, I will be anxious with you", Conrad's heart is at ease. After that, it was so decided.
Mangold said that the film reminded him of "The Maltese Eagle" and Hitchcock's "Lifeboat". Most of the films required more than 50 scenes, but the film had only one-a hotel in the desert. According to John Cusack, "Although there are actually ten characters in the play, I think the motel is like the eleventh character, like a labyrinth, which is puzzling." The motel set is quite successful. , Created a creepy environment for the film. There are so many horror plots to be staged in this small haunted house, and the performance of the actors is very important.
The film gathers masters of story interpretation such as John Cusack, Ray Riotta, Amanda Pitt, Kerry Duvall, Alfred Molina, etc. It can be said to be another selling point of this film. This film tells the story of a stormy night, so during the filming process, heavy rains continued, and it was 40 days and 40 nights. The water in the machine spray gun that makes the rainstorm is warm. It is said that this is done to prevent the actors from getting cold and getting sick from too much cold water. Combining past, present, reality and nightmare expressions, he believes that through this film he can throw "many characters into a small'bottle' and see how they interact with each other."
