I still don't understand how "weak sauce" can be worse than "terrible", but since that's Trakt's version of grading, we'll go with "Weak Sauce"...the lowest I can possibly give this stinking pile of garbage.
Let me preface my review by stating that I am in no way averse to "torture porn"; I wouldn't call myself a "fan" of it (that would indicate some loose wires somewhere, and that ain't me) but I certainly don't shy away from it. Good torture movies can be extremely entertaining, e.g. the Hostel series as well as some of the Saw franchise. Bad torture movies can be exactly that: TORTURE. So my scathing review and rating of this piece of fly-infested carp isn't based on a weak constitution or an aversion to violence; it's an aversion to very poorly-made movies, and that's exactly what THIS thing is. I'm not even sure where to begin, but let me hit the high spots (without any spoilers):
OVERALL: The movie had the cast, the look, the sound, the cinematography, and the overall feel of something that was thrown together on a drunken weekend by a bunch of college freshmen trying to collaborate on a homework assignment for their Performing Arts major. Absolutely atrocious from beginning to end, with the acting being unspeakably poor. It wasn't "wooden" (like those movies you see where A-listers "phone it in" and just seem to be getting a paycheck with the lowest possible amount of effort); this was just flat out BAD acting. I didn't watch one scene that was convincing, from the BEST possible moments in the movie (which would probably be among the opening scenes) to the WORST possible moments (the height of the pain/suffering the victims were put through). Not a single scene looked remotely believable on the part of the actors. The cinematography throughout was very poor, again as though being done by someone with a low-budget camera and absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of how to film particular scenes. Lighting - in a movie that includes night/twilight scenes - needs to be kept subdued but at least allow the viewer to tell what's going on at that particular moment, but no such luck here. (But I've watched "quality" movies that had poor lighting, so that was probably the least of my gripes.) I don't even know where to begin about the dialogue…mainly because so much of it was completely unintelligible OR completely drowned out by the soundtrack. Literally, in some scenes (especially towards the conclusion), the "background music" became the "foreground music" with the dialogue being completely drowned out. If there's anything positive to say, it's that the movie was bad enough WITHOUT hearing what was being said; that would have just made it worse, undoubtedly. I'm assuming this was meant to be a "torture" movie, but the "torture" was extremely minimal…possibly because this was a TV-14 movie? (That in itself was surprising enough, given the language and nudity.) When you're watching it, it has the feeling that someone has all these great ideas of torture in the back of their mind, but when it comes to actually enacting it - even on-screen - they get the willies and can't bring themselves to actually pull it off. You get this, "I'm about to make your life a hellish nightmare..." zoom-in shot and then the next scene, the "victim" is crying with whatever the results are of that "hellish nightmare" that was just enacted. No real scenes of graphic, gruesome violence, and loopholes abound in the few scenes that SEEM to imply brutality. The ending was cheap, predictable, extremely unoriginal, and did nothing at all to improve on this film's overall rating. The storyline itself has been done - or implied - countless times, so I'm not sure why they thought this would stand out. It didn't.
There is absolutely NOTHING positive I can say about this film…but again, I'm not squeamish or averse to hardcore violent films. This was not "hardcore violent", and it wasn't a good film by any stretch of the imagination. It was just absolutely awful. This isn't even one of those films that's "so bad, it's worth watching" I wouldn't even recommend you "watch this at your own risk"; I'm just going to come right out and do you a favor and say "Don't even bother." Probably one of the single WORST movies I have ever sat through.
Review by ShubesBlockedParent2022-08-10T22:47:21Z
I still don't understand how "weak sauce" can be worse than "terrible", but since that's Trakt's version of grading, we'll go with "Weak Sauce"...the lowest I can possibly give this stinking pile of garbage.
Let me preface my review by stating that I am in no way averse to "torture porn"; I wouldn't call myself a "fan" of it (that would indicate some loose wires somewhere, and that ain't me) but I certainly don't shy away from it. Good torture movies can be extremely entertaining, e.g. the Hostel series as well as some of the Saw franchise. Bad torture movies can be exactly that: TORTURE. So my scathing review and rating of this piece of fly-infested carp isn't based on a weak constitution or an aversion to violence; it's an aversion to very poorly-made movies, and that's exactly what THIS thing is. I'm not even sure where to begin, but let me hit the high spots (without any spoilers):
OVERALL: The movie had the cast, the look, the sound, the cinematography, and the overall feel of something that was thrown together on a drunken weekend by a bunch of college freshmen trying to collaborate on a homework assignment for their Performing Arts major. Absolutely atrocious from beginning to end, with the acting being unspeakably poor. It wasn't "wooden" (like those movies you see where A-listers "phone it in" and just seem to be getting a paycheck with the lowest possible amount of effort); this was just flat out BAD acting. I didn't watch one scene that was convincing, from the BEST possible moments in the movie (which would probably be among the opening scenes) to the WORST possible moments (the height of the pain/suffering the victims were put through). Not a single scene looked remotely believable on the part of the actors. The cinematography throughout was very poor, again as though being done by someone with a low-budget camera and absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of how to film particular scenes. Lighting - in a movie that includes night/twilight scenes - needs to be kept subdued but at least allow the viewer to tell what's going on at that particular moment, but no such luck here. (But I've watched "quality" movies that had poor lighting, so that was probably the least of my gripes.) I don't even know where to begin about the dialogue…mainly because so much of it was completely unintelligible OR completely drowned out by the soundtrack. Literally, in some scenes (especially towards the conclusion), the "background music" became the "foreground music" with the dialogue being completely drowned out. If there's anything positive to say, it's that the movie was bad enough WITHOUT hearing what was being said; that would have just made it worse, undoubtedly. I'm assuming this was meant to be a "torture" movie, but the "torture" was extremely minimal…possibly because this was a TV-14 movie? (That in itself was surprising enough, given the language and nudity.) When you're watching it, it has the feeling that someone has all these great ideas of torture in the back of their mind, but when it comes to actually enacting it - even on-screen - they get the willies and can't bring themselves to actually pull it off. You get this, "I'm about to make your life a hellish nightmare..." zoom-in shot and then the next scene, the "victim" is crying with whatever the results are of that "hellish nightmare" that was just enacted. No real scenes of graphic, gruesome violence, and loopholes abound in the few scenes that SEEM to imply brutality. The ending was cheap, predictable, extremely unoriginal, and did nothing at all to improve on this film's overall rating. The storyline itself has been done - or implied - countless times, so I'm not sure why they thought this would stand out. It didn't.
There is absolutely NOTHING positive I can say about this film…but again, I'm not squeamish or averse to hardcore violent films. This was not "hardcore violent", and it wasn't a good film by any stretch of the imagination. It was just absolutely awful. This isn't even one of those films that's "so bad, it's worth watching" I wouldn't even recommend you "watch this at your own risk"; I'm just going to come right out and do you a favor and say "Don't even bother." Probably one of the single WORST movies I have ever sat through.