Having been released from rehab Melanie (Leah Pipes) joins the rest of her family in a new town where they can avoid her shameful past. As sister Crystal (Kristin Cavallari) approaches the new family home with her recently release sister she tells a terrible story about how back in the 1960’s whilst returning from a school trip, the towns children are involved in a terrible accident in which there bus collided with a high speed train as all their parents watched on helpless at the terrible carnage that ensued. Crystal tells Melanie that according to urban legend if you park your car in neutral near the railway crossing the ghosts of the dead children will push you safely across to the other side. As more and more of the town’s residents tell Melanie the same story, she sets out to discover if there is any truth to the legend; and while she finds out the truth about the story, she also discovers a terrible secret kept by the town’s people since that fateful day.

Despite featuring a reasonable cast including Josh Henderson (Desperate Housewives, 90210), Sally Kirkland (Bruce Almighty) and Geoffrey Lewis (Devil’s Rejects, Maverick) the general acting standard is awful which is a leading contributor as to why Fingerprints fails so badly. Everybody looks reasonably unimpressed to be part of the movie, almost as if they are literally being forced to appear; maybe it was something contractual. Some of the less experienced actors actually seem to be suffering from severe delayed reaction, a big issue when their character is brutally hacked to death and they do not seem to realise. Melanie and Crystal’s Mother (played by an actress I have no reason to investigate the history of) is portrayed by one of the most emotionally devoid actresses I have ever seen, never once showing any facial expression. The presence of Lou Diamond Phillips (for all of his five minutes on screen) is just a cheap attempt at securing viewers by attaching a once big name to the project.

And as a final assault, the movie has one of those nasty 1980’s TV movie hues that dominate the images. And 80’s TV movie is probably the best way of summing up Fingerprints. It’s far from the grizzly horror described on the case of the DVD. At best it’s an afternoon movie on some obscure satellite channel with a little bit of blood thrown in.

Fingerprints is released by Anchor Bay DVD and has no special features other than a splattering of trailers for other equally bad looking movies. I have to say it makes me wonder what has happened to the company that releases such classics like The Long Good Friday, Hellraiser and Withnail and I on DVD. You can purchase Fingerprints for around £15, but if you have the desire to see it think seriously about renting it instead.