Harper's Island - Whap

While watching Scream: the TV Series in early 2017, I was already thinking about Harper's Island (2009) for the spring season before summer arrives. I had been batting around bringing back the Scarecrow Slasher Summer this year, and I do have plenty of entries for the year (and maybe some returnees). Harper's Island is a nice segue into the summer out of winter Scream TV. Its episodes don't overstay their welcome and have enough characters involved early to bump off, all the while including the old standby of the notorious boogeyman from the past (John Wakefield) still haunting the present and the lead "final girl" returning home from "the big city" to hopefully heal her wounds as best she can while supporting her best friend, a poor but handsome young man marrying a pretty girl with a rich daddy who wants her with a handpicked hunk from his privileged class.

On the outskirts of the city of Seattle is an island called Harper's
Island where seven murders took place at the hands of psychopath John
Wakefield. It has been seven years and a wedding ceremony will be
scheduled for local Henry Dunn (Christopher Gorham, the blind CIA whiz
on the Piper Perabo USA Network show "Covert Affairs"), who used to
"wash boats for a living" and Trish Wellington (the stunning Katie
Cassidy, her hair brown on this particular show), daughter to the very
wealthy Thomas Wellington (Richard Burgi) on Harper's Island. Despite
the fact that Wakefield is dead, someone else could be lurking around
ready to slice and dice.

I must say the concept of a slasher themed show did sound interesting
to me as I rented the complete series (it only lasted one season) and
like the popular sub-genre. Though, saying that, plenty of identifiable
traits come with the sub-genre and find their way into "Whap", the
pilot episode of "Harper's Island". For instance (and thank you casting
director for hitting this out of the ballpark), Cameron Richardson is
the sizzling sexpot blond who loves to obviously stir things up and act
a little wild. She's a mustang that cannot be tamed. That said, she's a
cliché and I just wonder if she makes it past the very next episode
because in slasher movies characters like Richardson's Chloe wind up
dead rather early because of their promiscuity. I hope this isn't the
case because she is delicious eye candy I relish seeing time and again.
Chloe, for some reason, is in a relationship with the quiet and meek
Cal (Adam Campbell), a polar opposite of the girl, as he isn't really
the kind to be impulsive or "live for the moment". Their "dip in the
ocean" is a direct example of this. Cal wants to propose to her—somehow
I don't think she's the marrying kind just yet.

Right off the bat, someone is murdered. On board Wellington's yacht, a
"cousin Ben" is tied underneath the boat, his head right in front of
the propeller, soon he's mulch. Who is responsible for this? It would
have to be somebody on board the yacht, right?

One of the Wakefield victims was the mother of Henry's best friend,
Abby (Elaine Cassidy, herself a beauty with a rockin' figure in a tight
red cocktail dress), and she left Harper's Island afterward, making her
residency in LA (she is often referred to by a former flame as "big
city girl"). But, for Henry, she will return to the island, eventually
running into the man she tries to avoid, her sheriff father (Jim
Beaver), when a bar fight gets out of control (Henry's "black sheep"
brother, JD (Dean Chekvala), is pulled into an altercation with a bar
bastard who didn't like that his former girlfriend was being ogled by
Dunn). Another developing sub-plot concerns a former lover of Trish's,
Hunter Jennings (the handsome beefcake, Victor Webster), who doesn't
want to let her go ( a twist involving father Thomas explains a lot
about where he stands with the idea of his daughter marrying Henry),
calling her several times on the cell phone. Does Trish still have
feelings for Hunter? Henry actually notices Hunter calling Trish's cell
after the two have sex—what will Henry do about this?

With any pilot, you have these story lines that are presented, with us
wondering how characters will be developed over time. "Whap" lays the
groundwork here. Trish seems to love Henry, but what about Hunter? It
seems that the main motivation of the show is to see if Trish and Henry
will be married or if a killer in midst will make damn sure this
doesn't take place.

I need to mention an awesome cameo appearance by Harry Hamlin who is a
hoot as Henry's party-hearty uncle, Marty (everyone calls him "Uncle
Marty") a man who may be 50 but has the energy, vitality, and
personality of a 20 year old. He's a bachelor, very opinionated, and
free-spirited, but very loyal to Henry. Henry mentions that his parents
are dead and that only JD and Harry are all he has left. Unfortunately,
Harry listens in on a conversation between Thomas and someone he wants
to disturb the wedding, and confronts Trish's father about not allowing
the marriage to be threatened—not long after Harry suffers a tragic
fate. You have to wonder if the killer is someone close to Thomas.. If
you wonder why the pilot has the cinematic look of a big-budget feature
film (it does look like a sort of brother to "I Know What You Did Last
Summer"), that's because "Whap" was directed by Jon Turteltaub of the
Nicolas Cage Indiana Jones Summer "National Treasure" blockbusters.
Slick visuals and impressive stylizations, the look of this pilot is
indeed polished.