Masquerade

This bargain-bin thriller largely fails at generating much suspense and succeeds mainly at raising questions about its characters' capabilities and its bizarre, baffling "final twist." Masquerade starts out strangely, with the masked robbers speaking lines of exposition to each other about their plan, even if their plan makes no sense. It hinges on them waiting until it's nearly too late to even enter the house and then leisurely cutting paintings out of their frames when they have no time to do so. Worse, one of the bandits must spend time hunting for Casey, so their workforce is cut in half. Not to mention: Why do they even need to hunt for Casey? Why not just grab the stuff and go?

Aside from a needlessly cruel murder, nothing much happens until the parents get home, and even then there's a lot of wandering around and more strange behavior. The mother keeps trying to go upstairs and check on Casey, but for some reason the father needs her help to find a flashlight. Thorne is arguably the draw for Masquerade, but her usual tough persona is squelched here; she's kept out of the action for most of the running time. That said, the ending of Masquerade is the movie's biggest "what?" moment, perhaps sending some viewers back for another look, but likely irritating most others.