Opening June 15th in New York Cinemas and hitting VOD, XBOX, iTunes, Sony PlayStation, Amazon, and Sundance Now on May 11th (that’s 18 months after the UK DVD and Blu-ray release for any UK readers who are currently experiencing deja vu) The Tortured sees Jesse Metcalfe and Erika Christensen star as Craig and Elise Landry, a happy couple whose lives are shattered when their young son is abducted and murdered by a psychopath played by genre vet Bill Moseley. When the killer is apprehended and taken to court to stand trial he manages to plea bargain for a reduced sentence. Angered at this miscarriage of justice the couple turns vigilante and exact their own brand of justice, but there’s a moral to the story.
I was excited to see this (two years ago) and it was actually pretty disturbing. Whilst the cast were good, some of the actions the characters made were questionable but the film hurtled along at a quick enough pace to stop you from asking too many questions.
I never include spoilers in my reviews (where possible) but I must get this off my chest.
MAJOR SPOILER ALERT
Where the film falls down for any serious horror fan is in the “twist” ending. As the plot unfolds, the protagonists kidnap Bill Moseley’s character and begin exacting their bloody revenge. This is when horror fans can clearly see that the man being tortured in no way resembles Bill Moseley, so we already know that they have the wrong guy shackled to their table and are then waiting for the characters to catch on to what we already know. This severely lessens the impact of the film’s climax. I have no idea why they didn’t cast an unknown for the part as the finale would have been truly shocking. Sadly, this must be the one time having a “name” attached to your film is bad for business. Lots of American horror fans will be pissed off because we all were here in the UK.
END OF MAJOR SPOILERS
OVERALL SUMMARY
The Tortured is an okay way to spend 79 minutes. If I’d have paid £8 to see it in a cinema I would have felt majorly ripped off by the end of it but if you watch it through VOD or get it via an online rental package it maybe won’t seem so bad.
