Melanie Wood (Leah Pipes) is told by her older sister Crystal (Kristin Cavallari) about an urban legend of a haunted railroad crossing. A bus full of kids supposedly were killed by a train at that site. Melanie rejoins her family in their new home after a stint in rehab for heroine. She's the only who can see a mysterious girl who turns out to be Mary (Sally Kirkland)'s dead sister Julie. Doug (Lou Diamond Phillips) is the school counselor.This is a low budget horror that suffers from a lack of vision. The kills are not that good. The killer isn't that cool. I like Leah Pipes and Andrew Lawrence is a good douche bag. The other actors are not so good. It's a fine ghost story but Harry Basil is a limited horror director.

Nifty little combination ghost story / teen slasher film. The storyline isn't unique, but it has enough twists, turns and odd angles to keep you watching.The main characters are better fleshed out than in most films of this type while the supporting characters are functional and believable. Lou Diamond Phillips in a larger than cameo role lends some acting credence to an otherwise no name cast. Despite the lack of well known actors, the acting is a cut above the norm for the genre as is the overall writing.The film has its highs and lows, but for the most part it delivers what fans of ghost stories are looking for, though it might not have quite enough gore for the hard core slasher fan, but it has a little too much for a pure ghost story.Well worth the watch if you like the teen thriller, ghost story, bloody mystery genre. This film is an interesting mix that you don't often find.

Young Leah Pipes is fresh out of drug rehab and now moved into a new town where her parents and sister Kristin Cavallari have previously moved. There's a country legend connected with this small Texas town where a bus load of school kids were run down when their school bus got stuck on a railroad track. Or what was the real story, the secret that the town isn't crazy to get out even though this happened 40 years earlier.Because she nearly died of a drug overdose Pipes had a near death experience and one of the dead kids keeps trying to communicate with her. Of course her clueless parents think Pipes is still drugging, her mother Sally Kirkland is incredibly unsympathetic. For no apparent reason that I can see.The real story is quite a twist, but the story is poorly written with roles making no sense and why everyone is believing that poor Pipes is the cause of a lot of more recent tragedy makes no sense at all. Lou Diamond Phillips as a teacher/guidance counselor and Geoffrey Lewis as the former mayor of the town now the town drunk are wasted in their roles, especially Phillips whose whole character makes no sense to me.Josh Henderson the current John Ross Ewing on the revived Dallas is also here as a sympathetic boyfriend to Pipes and Andrew Lawrence of the Lawrence brothers of Philadelphia is the school bully who Pipes gives a bad case of blue gonads to. Also wasted.Fingerprints is a strange film which should have stuck to either being a ghost or a slasher flick. I would have preferred the ghost genre. There were elements of the classic Changeling here, but not well used.

Troubled teenager and recovering drug addict Melanie (a fine and sympathetic performance by the fetching Leah Pipes) sets out to uncover the truth about a popular urban legend concerning a bus accident that killed a bunch of children fifty years ago in a peaceful rural community. Meanwhile, a series of brutal murders occurs in the small town. Director Harry Basil, working from a crafty and absorbing script by Brian and Jason Cleveland, relates the engrossing story at a steady pace, adroitly creates and maintains a spooky and quietly unsettling atmosphere, presents likable and well-drawn main characters that the viewer really cares about, offers a flavorsome evocation of the sleepy hamlet setting, firmly grounds the fantastic premise in a thoroughly plausible pedestrian workaday reality, tosses in a few decent bits of gore for good measure, and pulls out the heart-pounding stops at the harrowing climax (the true explanation behind the urban legend is genuinely chilling, too). The mostly able acting from the solid cast helps matters a whole lot: Pipes makes for an appealingly plucky and vulnerable heroine, Kristin Cavallari registers favorably as Melanie's sweet older sister Crystal, Josh Henderson contributes a sturdy turn as nice guy Penn, Lou Diamond Phillips holds his own as amiable drug counselor Doug, Andrew Lawrence is perfectly hateful as boorish and obnoxious bully Mitch, Sydnee Harlan excels in her frequent unnerving appearances as eerie little girl ghost Julie, and there's dependably professional work from reliable veterans Geoffrey Lewis as scruffy old drunk Keeler and Sally Kirkland as the bitter and unhinged Mary, respectively. (However, Ginger Gilmartin positively grates on one's nerves with her horribly over-the-top portrayal of Melanie's bitchy and distrustful mother Bethany.) The sharp cinematography by Michael Goi and Andrea V. Rossotto provides an appropriately shadowy look. Sean Norris' shivery score hits the spine-tingling spot. Good little indie shocker.