FALL DOWN DEAD is a serial killer thriller made on a tiny budget which looks like that of a typical indie movie. The story is simplicity in itself, one of those single location films where a bunch of diverse characters are trapped in a building by a psychopath. This time around it's an office building with Udo Kier's sweaty murderer lurking around outside. Dominique Swain takes the lead and wonders what happened to her career, while David Carradine shows up as the world's oldest-looking security guard. The director throws in Hitchcock references and the like but not much of it sticks and it's all very derivative which makes it hard to get excited about.

In a big American city, the serial killer The Picasso Killer (Udo Kier) is terrorizing the dwellers and the police department does not have lead to find him. The bartender Christie Wallace (Dominique Swain) dreams on moving to the countryside with her six year-old daughter Zoe to have a peaceful life far from the violence of the city.

Late night of Christmas Eve, Christie leaves the Tides Bar where she works and walks back home. In an alley, she sees a woman dying covered on blood and The Picasso Killer sees Christie and chases her. She runs to a commercial building where the night watchman Wade (David Carradine) is reluctant to open the door and does not give credit to Christie. She calls the police and Detectives Stefan Kerchek (Mehmet Günsür) and Lawrence Kellog (R. Keith Harris) attend the call. When Christie tells that she can recognize the infamous serial-killer, there is a blackout, the phones are dead and the detectives cannot call the precinct. They lock the building waiting for reinforcement but sooner they find that The Picasso Killer has broken in the building and their lives are in danger.

The dull and lame "Fall Down Dead" has one of the worst screenplays I have ever seen. The plot begins with the free nudity of the character Marie, performed by Jennifer Alden and that does exist only to show her naked body in the bathroom. Then two experienced detectives and a security guard, all of them armed, are easily subdued by the serial-killer that is unarmed. The self-proclaimed The Picasso Killer tells that Christie would be his Mona Lisa; wouldn't be more appropriate the nickname The Leonardo da Vinci Killer? Last but not the least, Stefan Kerchek is shot three times, stabbed, falls from a significant height and is almost dying; out of the blue, he starts walking as if he would be healed in a laughable situation. My vote is one (awful).

Title (Brazil): "Isolados" ("Isolated")

Christie (Dominique Swain) leaves work to walk home on Christmas eve (didn't really factor in) and sees the Picasso Killer (Udo Kier) who has proved himself a nuisance for the city as he carves up women. Christie is let into the locked Hitchcock building. A couple of police show up and there are a few people working late.

They get trapped inside a building with the phone lines cut. They can't get out, but the killer can get in. No one owns a cell phone, maybe this was the 1990's judging by the computer, but I don't recall anything setting the date. And when trapped inside a building with a killer, the best thing to do for the motion picture is to divide up. We know who is the final girl and if you wonder where the title came from, wait.

They attempted to make the killer into something with a small amount of background, but they failed to give him a good screen personality.

Guide: F-word, sex, nudity (Karine Darrah)