P2 opens this week against two high profile films: Fred Claus, reuniting Vince Vaughn with Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin; and Lions for Lambs, the first film from the re-formed United Artists, boasting Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, and Robert Redford.

And then there’s P2, the first film from newly created Summit Entertainment. Franck Khalfoun, High Tension actor, makes his directorial debut and collaborated on P2 with producers Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur. Aja directed High Tension and The Hill Have Eyes. All three scripted P2.

Does a lower-budget thriller (est. $8M+) stand a chance against such studio behemoths? Franck Khalfoun talked about P2’s marketing in a recent phone conversation.

For their first film, Summit and Khalfoun have the same goal in mind, “[to] reach at the same time, the genre audience and the mainstream audience.” In Khalfoun’s experience, “Genre audiences appreciate tension as much as they appreciate gore.” Meanwhile, “Mainstream audiences really like an intense movie and a suspense thriller.” To attract both segments, Khalfoun utilizes the one-location setting. “The theme of being locked in a parking lot is so universal.”

Working with a lower-budget has its benefits, according to Khalfoun. “Letting your imagination go wild in a parking lot. In the end, we ended up having more ideas than we could fit in the movie, so we had to take some out.” Khalfoun added, “Technique, camera angles, how to stretch out a scene to create tension was our biggest asset.”

On the downside, there were, “Time constraints of having a smaller budget.” Khalfoun said there were some “one-take deals.” He overcame the budget by “looking at the writing and making sure that enough scenes had sheer tension in it.”

How people, especially on internet forums, perceive the film is a different story. Khalfoun agrees that P2 has more in common with films like Red Eye or Panic Room than with torture porns such as Hostel or Captivity. Khalfoun is not offended that some people place P2 under torture porn; he credits this perception to, “…the storyline. A girl trapped and a guy after her. You immediately think it’s going to be torturous, especially in today’s market… It’s not torture porn, it’s not as graphic. It’s got a couple scenes, but it’s really just very [action] packed. I think that’s what [the audience] will end up appreciating.”

The one area where Khalfoun and Summit disagree is the trailer, viewable at www.p2themovie.com. “Summit sent to a trailer park,” Khalfoun says. He said the trailer “gives up way too much…It’s more than a cat and mouse movie.” Khalfoun likes audiences having “mystery” going into the theatre and “hates to see shots taken out of context.” He understands that Summit is just “trying to get people into the theatre,” but is still reluctant about the trailer.

As for the future, Khalfoun concluded, “I care to make good movies that have intriguing stories and characters you can relate with.”

P2 tells the story of an ambitious young executive (Rachel Nichols, Charlie Wilson’s War) stranded on Parking level 2 on Christmas Eve. A seemingly friendly security guard (Wes Bentley, American Beauty) offers to help, but he has ulterior motives.