Sara Novak is a introverted college student with a few skeletons in her closet. Shying away from classmates, she prefers to spend time with Vern, an older comic store owner who shares her passion for mind games and riddles. But when the riddles she solves lead to the deaths of those around her, she realizes the riddles are more than a simple game...

Producer: Matthew Metcalfe and Suzanne Berger, Director: Jesse Warn

Writer: Jesse Warn

Cast: Carly Pope: Orange County, The Glass House, TV's Popular, Disturbing Behavior: Adrian Paul: TV's Tracker, The Void, Highlander: Endgame: Brendan Fehr: Final Destination, TV's Roswell, Disturbing Behavior: Jay Baruchel: The Rules of Attraction, Almost Famous, TV's "Undeclared"

Review

As always, this is my opinion, and I'll say right up front that I really enjoyed the film.

Sara Novak is having a great deal of trouble dealing with the death of her mother in an automobile accident. She's a college student , taking a philosophy course, perhaps in search of answers to her questions as to why she lived and her mother didn't. She's also become obsessed with riddles.

Her father, a police captain, has tried to go on with his life, marrying again and doing his job. He also likes word games, crossword puzzles in his case. The film opens with his interrogation of a prisoner, Emily Grey, then drops back two weeks.

The next person we meet is Vern Stevens, a quiet man, owner of a comic book store. Vern is looking for answers, too. Why did he live when his two dearest friends died in a fire he caused?

One of the patrons of the shop, we only know him as 'The Skateboarder", is talking to Vern about meanings and riddles. Vern says, "Either everything has meaning, or nothing does."

This sets us up for the "Game", solving riddles. Eventually, if you win, you will see the design, the answer to all your questions.

The film is moody, spooky and a definite departure for Adrian Paul. I always like seeing actors stretch. Adrian has done a great job here. He's quietly intense when we first meat him. But he's a man with far more problems then we can see. In the sequence in his rooms over the store, he's looking in a mirror and we can see the extent of the burn scars and the flames tattooed up his back and over his shoulder, perhaps as a reminder of what he's lost. The scene has almost no dialogue, but says a lot.

When the killings start, Sara wants to go to the police, but Vern talks her out of it and they try to find some answers by themselves.

As things become more and more involved, Vern begins to fray around the edges. Panicking, he tells her to remove any evidence of her involvement in the game. We follow along as his fear, and then his anger spirals out of control.

There's an inevitability about the ending. Maybe Vern really did see "The Design"