Black Diamond

Inscrutable young woman Elena (Inbar Lavi) arrives for an extended stay at her hedge-fund boyfriend Spencer's (Ray Panthaki) house atop the mountain in an elite ski town. But a misstep with a local cowboy handyman Jesse (Jake McLaughlin) shatters that idyllic life and turns it into a deadly triangle of lust, obsession and murder.

The story is actually quite good if not new, and there was plenty of opportunity for tension, thrills and outright scares. It was of course let down by poor acting, directing and editing. But it's a B movie by inexperienced people so we can forgive that.

The only really decent actor on set is Inbar Lavi who does a reasonable job of playing the hero-victim Elena. It's a shame that the very experienced Jake McLaughlin failed tos tep up to the mark, but I suspect that was poor direction. Like many actors, without strong direction they aren't very good.

The film did get tense at times, and I felt that if the script were better there were more opportunities for more thrill and excitement. However there were too many slow and badly paced scenes that diluted the excitement. Also the ending was very predictable and weakly carried out but we all sort of wanted it, despite that Elena was the author of her own misfortune.

Not an awful film at all and would make a perfect Sunday matinee. I ranked it 5.