CAPTIVITY (2007) * Elisha Cuthbert, Daniel Gillies, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Michael Harney, Laz Alonso, Chrysta Olson, Carl Paoli, Trent Broin. (Dir: Roland Joffe)
Repugnant and reprehensible; a new low in torture porn.
The latest to cash in on the new 'torture porn' subgenre of the slasher horror film is perhaps the most repugnant and reprehensibly stupid offering to audiences in some time and that's saying a lot with the high being SAW and the middle-brow HOSTEL on vapors with its last chapter recently.
The film focuses on a famous super model named Jennifer (24's Cuthbert) who is lured to a hot nightclub under false pretenses, is drugged and abducted by a madman who returns her to his dank, creepy home where he plans on torturing her apparently for being a famous person and also someone who may or may not resemble his mother (ah, mommy issues!) It really doesn't matter as the plot for what it's worth is just about subjecting a hottie to one sick display of violent methods at his demented whim (i.e. subjecting her to a smoothie concocted of a Tupperware container of bloody human tissue including an eyeball) for four never-ending, hellish days until she realizes she is not the only one being held captive when she meets another young attractive person named Gary (Gillies), who also is being subjugated to the psycho's physically nauseating acts (i.e. a painful removal of a tooth by pliers). The two eventually are allowed to remain together in one of the labyrinth-like chambers the lunatic has throughout his lair until oh yeah, 'the twist' which quite frankly is rather lame and eye-rollingly awful.
Not to mention the fact that an Oscar nominated director is attached to this dreck, Joffe ("THE MISSION" and "THE KILLING FIELDS") should be ashamed even if it is true as the rumor goes that there was many cuts to his work in the process (the film was under brutal scrutiny in a controversial turn of events this year with its publicity of billboards that depicted Cuthbert in its pornographic trappings). Never the less I blame schlock screenwriter Larry Cohen (who collaborated with newbie Joseph Tura) for this mess. Cohen scripted recently "PHONE BOOTH" and "CELLULAR" and is responsible for the cult classic "IT'S ALIVE" but where those three projects offered some originality and genuine tension here there are no likable characters nor any reason to invest time and care into the reason once the twist is revealed. Let's just say sibling rivalry is involved.
What is really a shame is the state of the modern day horror film in its bankablility at the box office and critical acclaim at a discerning low; is it conceivable audiences are just too jaded and laugh at any type of on screen terror since we've been immune to violence for decades upon decades and simply want to be entertained? The horror, the horror .
Repugnant and reprehensible; a new low in torture porn.
The latest to cash in on the new 'torture porn' subgenre of the slasher horror film is perhaps the most repugnant and reprehensibly stupid offering to audiences in some time and that's saying a lot with the high being SAW and the middle-brow HOSTEL on vapors with its last chapter recently.
The film focuses on a famous super model named Jennifer (24's Cuthbert) who is lured to a hot nightclub under false pretenses, is drugged and abducted by a madman who returns her to his dank, creepy home where he plans on torturing her apparently for being a famous person and also someone who may or may not resemble his mother (ah, mommy issues!) It really doesn't matter as the plot for what it's worth is just about subjecting a hottie to one sick display of violent methods at his demented whim (i.e. subjecting her to a smoothie concocted of a Tupperware container of bloody human tissue including an eyeball) for four never-ending, hellish days until she realizes she is not the only one being held captive when she meets another young attractive person named Gary (Gillies), who also is being subjugated to the psycho's physically nauseating acts (i.e. a painful removal of a tooth by pliers). The two eventually are allowed to remain together in one of the labyrinth-like chambers the lunatic has throughout his lair until oh yeah, 'the twist' which quite frankly is rather lame and eye-rollingly awful.
Not to mention the fact that an Oscar nominated director is attached to this dreck, Joffe ("THE MISSION" and "THE KILLING FIELDS") should be ashamed even if it is true as the rumor goes that there was many cuts to his work in the process (the film was under brutal scrutiny in a controversial turn of events this year with its publicity of billboards that depicted Cuthbert in its pornographic trappings). Never the less I blame schlock screenwriter Larry Cohen (who collaborated with newbie Joseph Tura) for this mess. Cohen scripted recently "PHONE BOOTH" and "CELLULAR" and is responsible for the cult classic "IT'S ALIVE" but where those three projects offered some originality and genuine tension here there are no likable characters nor any reason to invest time and care into the reason once the twist is revealed. Let's just say sibling rivalry is involved.
What is really a shame is the state of the modern day horror film in its bankablility at the box office and critical acclaim at a discerning low; is it conceivable audiences are just too jaded and laugh at any type of on screen terror since we've been immune to violence for decades upon decades and simply want to be entertained? The horror, the horror .