Title: Dead Man's Curve (aka The Curve) (1998)
Director: Dan Rosen
Actors: Michael Vartan, Matthew Lillard, Keri Russell
Run Time: 1hr 30 mins

Another one of those movies were there twists and turns keep you on your toes. The story is as follows: Two college students, Tim and Chris, heard rumours about the unofficial rule in college that says when your roommate commits suicide, you will get a good grades for the rest of the semester. They are more than willing to put it to the test and plan to stage Rand's, their roommate, suicide.

They ask the College counselllor what signs of depression could be and she comes up with rather cliche signs like: depressing music, preferably from the 80s, depressing movies, preferably Swedish, and of course: Sylvia Plath novels. So they buy all this stuff and plant it in his room.

Then on the night they plan to kill him, Rand's girlfriend tells him she's pregnant and he makes a big scene. This, of course, is very fortunate for the two. They go out to a cliff, where Rand is sitting, drinking like a madman and kill him. To their surprise the rule is real and they put on an act to refuse the offer but take it anyway. When the police come check it out, Tim, who seems to be the heartless of the two, makes Chris look very suspicious. He tells the cops he and Rand where fighting and Tim also made Chris pay for all the stuff they bought. This shows up on his creditcard receipts and makes him look very suspicious.

Then it's where all the twists and turns start to occur and nothing is as it seems.

I really liked the twists and turns, because without them this is just a standard 'are they going to get away with it' thriller. The twists and turns make it different and special, almost. Of course, it is still filled with thriller cliches. Matthew Lillard is great as the evil Tim. He portrays the character not only with just the lines, but his entire body. You can see he had a great time portraying this bastard. Michael Vartan was also cast perfectly for the doubting Chris. He is the one who constantly thinks about ethics and he shows remorse. Dana Delany has a funny cameo as the counsellor who tries to quit smoking and is constantly chewing on things and note the patches on her arms.

I give it a 7.5/10