Director: James Cullen Bressack
Year: 2012
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Home Invasion
Plot:
Celebrating their sons’ birthday, a Jewish family finds themselves under attack by a group of Neo-Nazi’s who begin targeting and tormenting the family because of their background, and as the night wears on they begin increasing the torture in more brutal and sadistic ways than they imagined they would do.
Review:
On the whole, this was a spectacularly brutal and enjoyable effort. One of the finest aspects here is the immediacy and impact of the overall experience here. Without any kind of build-up at all, they invade and assert their authority in an absolutely fantastic fashion. Taking over the house, holding them down and tying them up before raping the mother in front of the whole family even before getting an idea of what’s going on is a stellar way of going about introducing what the group is about and the intensity level they’re going to exhibit throughout the rest of the film.
What makes it so intense is that, as the night goes on, this one really ups the intensity level as they force ever more extreme actions on the group. Not only do they take these kids through raping and forcing themselves onto the kids but the beatings, physical torture and psychological torment get brought to a head with the cutting out and blinding of the one family member which signals the real fun as they take revenge on the group. These scenes are fun, chilling and cathartic based on what happened to them beforehand, countering the sadism and brutality in overall fun fashion leading to a shocking finale. These here are the films’ positives.
This one does have a few minor flaws. The main issue here is the seemingly bizarre notion of having the three be at odds with each other over what they want to do with the family. They tend to argue over what they want to do and seem to have no game-play other than being at the house because of their opposing religious views which seems to be quite unrealistic based on the overall intention behind their invasion. The arguments and frustration they share with each other during so many of these scenes are unnatural and unrealistic for a group going through this kind of action together.
The other issue with this one tends to be a carryover effect from that in how unrealistic the whole affair seems to be. Not only is there little info about how they knew of the family’s background when it’s obvious they just moved there from the moving boxes strewn all over the house but the whole thing seems sloppy anyway. Beyond them arguing with each other, letting the family members go around unattended with escape opportunities to notify the neighbors without any care about not letting them get away or alerting the neighbors with their antics. These issues do manage to hold it back somewhat slightly in the end.
Overview: ***.5
A brutal and somewhat extreme home invasion effort that does have a few minor issues that don’t prove detrimental in the slightest, this is one of the better entries in the style and has plenty to like about it. Give it a watch for those into the more extreme side of the genre or appreciate the genre overall, while those who don’t enjoy the style presented here should heed caution with this one.
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