Assuming he’s seen it, Director Michael Feifer must have had a hard time sitting through Michael Hurst’s ROOM 6 when it was released last fall. The problem? Well, Feifer has made virtually the same damn movie with a bit of FINAL DESTINATION thrown in for measure.

Rachel Wilson (Cherish Lee, daughter of Dallas star Charlene Tilton) is an exotic dancer who after being run over by a lunatic cab driver is traumatized by reoccurring images of the Angel of Death. For observation, Rachel is admitted to a foreboding mental health facility where a group of similar patients are being slowly picked off by death himself.

The similarities between GRIM REAPER, ROOM 6 and FINAL DESTINATION are almost too glaring to omit. The film is based around the concept that you can’t cheat death and that no matter where you run or what you do when your time has come, you’ll meet your maker. The set-up, the setting and the plight of Rachel’s boyfriend Liam (Benjamin Pitts) is a mirror image of the Hurst film. It’s all formulaic but Fifer has shown an ability to make formula work before (THE GRAVEYEARD). But, here it all seems forced.

The character development is non-existent. The thing about the FINAL DESTINATION films is that—sure—the characters are cardboard cutout amalgamations of typical teen behavior but at least they’re interesting. The best GRIM REAPER can give us is Liam’s declaration that he’s over protective and jealous of Rachel’s job and that her boss doesn’t care much that she’s gone missing. The rest of the pack has little or no on-screen development.

The lack of real visceral thrills and the inability to identify with anyone in the cast does not help matters. As for the terror of death, the cloaked figure with the scythe was hardly menacing even when you got a glimpse of his face. The real problem was that the cast never sold the terror. I didn’t really feel any jeopardy as they ran up and down the deserted corridors of the dank hospital. In fact the scariest character in the film was Brent Fidler’s portrayal of Dr. Brown—a performance that truly channeled Anthony Heald’s SILENCE OF THE LAMBS Dr. Chilton—and that guy always creeps me out.

The cinematography here is 50/50. Compared to Fifer’s last film—A DEAD CALLING which was grainy, shot on the fly, and overall dirty looking—GRIM REAPER has some beautifully lit scenes with a solid spooky vibe sitting aside some that are so dark that it’s difficult if not impossible to determine what or who is in them. The fact that the set has no real power for most of the movie contributes greatly to the occasional muddiness of the look.

Playing itself out as more of a psychological thriller than either ROOM 6 or FINAL DESTINATION doesn’t help and the film is short on gore. GRIM REAPER has a fair share of problems but the lack in overall development plays hard on the projects ability to withstand 90 minutes of running time. It felt long even as the final 15-minutes passed by.

In the end, it’s just too tame and it’s inhabitants too uninteresting to carry the film. I don’t know much that would have risen the project too far ahead of it’s derivative plot lines but I suspect some genuine suspense and few reasonably violent deaths would have gone a long way to make the movie a bit more watchable. As it stands, the production has better chance as Cable TV filler than it does at garnering a devoted following on DVD.