Over the last five years or so, while still occasionally taking the skulking, low-key, payday gig (Quarantine, Prom Night), actor Johnathon Schaech has quietly branched out into screenwriting, setting himself up for a chance, at least, at a successful second act in Hollywood as a reliable, single-stop peddler of low-budget, direct-to-video genre fare. I say single-stop because in his latest movie, The Poker Club, Schaech assumes multiple roles, nabbing a prominent on-screen role as well as several behind-the-scenes credits.

Directed by Tim McCann (Nowhere Man, Runaway), The Poker Club centers around secrets lies, and ill-advised decision-making. For years, Aaron Tyler (Schaech) has been getting together on Monday evenings with his three best friends to play poker. One night, though, everything changes forever; a burglar breaks into Aaron’s house, and the men accidentally kill him. Fearing the consequences, Aaron and his pals dispose of the corpse and agree to take the secret to their graves. Soon, however, they discover that someone else knows what they’ve done, and is now playing a murderous game of revenge with them.

Johnny Messner, Loren Dean, Michael Risley, Scrubs‘ Judy Reyes, Lori Heuring (with whom Schaech has a naked history), and Jana Kramer all co-star in this streamlined flick, which obviously cops moves from panic-infused cover-up tales like I Know What You Did Last Summer and its sequels, as well as Very Bad Things. In fact, The Poker Club could use a little of that latter film’s wild, trippy energy, because too frequently the plotting here feels like laid track, and the twists and turns thus little but pulled levers. Perhaps there was a more acutely sketched sense of betrayal and intrigue in Ed Gorman’s popular horror novel, from which the movie is adapted. The writing team of Schaech and Richard Chizmar (who penned the sequel to Roadhouse, in which Schaech also starred) comes up with some nice wheel-spinning dialogue for when the bitterness and recrimination between friends really comes to a boil, but McCann — while piecing things together nicely in a few charged what-do-we-do scenes, and generally making effective use of music — is overall unable to come up with a compelling, unifying visual scheme for the film.

Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, The Poker Club comes presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, with an English language 5.1 Dolby digital audio track and optional subtitles in only English, French and Chinese, which runs somewhat counter to both the title’s easily translated genre thrills and poker’s reputation as a burgeoning worldwide hobby. The sole supplemental feature is a feature-length audio commentary track with Schaech and director McCann, but the pair have an easy rapport that makes their chat go down fairly smoothly. It’s also an instructive listen for would-be filmmakers and on-the-rise line producers, as various means of cost-effectiveness are frequently addressed. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. C (Movie) C+ (Disc)