Uneven. Titillation with topless fighting and trope‐y shower scenes, contrasted
with an exceptionally uncomfortable rape scene that plays far too long and
lingers in the distress caused.
Her mother trying to distract Pinkman (sorry Jessie, that’s
your forever name now) with come‐ons and alcohol while knowing that he’s likely
one of the rapists and attempted murderers? I don’t know how she would be able
to do that with a straight face.
Pinkman’s death scene was the only part of the film I couldn’t keep a serious
face and let out a laugh – from the cunning drainage of the sink to the
discovery of a waste disposal and then just hanging off the sink with a hammer
in the back of the head. It needed to be quicker to avoid the comedy.
Build up in the first handful of minutes really set my expectations
high, the murder and rape (then attempted murder) of the two girls had me
questioning where this film was trying to go. And i’m not truly sure it knew
either at the conclusion, I would read from it ‘our humanity is lost for
revenge’. But that might be too generous.
The comeuppance comes late in the film, and the final act… it
involves a microwave is just out of place and absurd.
Parents brutally murdered three people.
Krug tried to kill his own son.
At least the son got over his demons and… oh wait no, he might
have died? I’m not even sure after that.
It’s a well made, acted and composed jumble, which explains my high rating
alongside my negative comments.
Review by whitsbrainVIP 6BlockedParentSpoilers2022-01-15T17:32:20Z— updated 2024-04-09T12:54:36Z
Flipping through channels, this caught my attention even though I knew I never wanted to watch this version or Wes Craven's original. The assault and revenge subject matter is about the least appealing thing I can imagine watching. Give me malevolent aliens from space, marauding monsters from middle Earth or supernatural beings bent on haunting innocents anytime. But movies that feature such person-on-person cruelty are nothing I am interested in seeing. Inexplicably though, I watched this 2009 remake from start to finish.
Who is the audience for this? The assault of the young woman is horrible. The revenge of the woman's parents on the assaulters is over-the-top. Ask yourself...why would they shove one of the bad guy's hands in a garbage disposal before they slam him in the top of the head with a claw hammer?!? Later, the father (who's a doctor) surgically paralyzes one of the other scumbags and then puts his head in a microwave until it explodes. I don't know why a person would take revenge so "creatively". It changes the mood of the movie from disgust against the assaulters to clouding the motivations of the parents beyond the revenge of their daughter.
I'm starting to question myself actually. Why I would spend anytime with this sort of movie at all? And worse, I believe I've seen movies with even more senseless violence. Not pleased with myself for sitting through this.