Path (2015) by Lucio Rojas

Director: Lucio Rojas
Year: 2015
Country: Chile
Alternate Titles: Sendero
Genre: Psycho Family

Plot:
Accepting a foreign-studies scholarship, a woman and her friends decide to take a road trip to celebrate the occasion but when they are caught by a deranged family of psychopaths interested in keeping them as pets for a ruthless criminal to play with as he pleases they try to gather the courage to escape the area alive.

Review:

On the whole, this was a pretty enjoyable effort. Among it’s more noteworthy aspects is the strong setup that works nicely to get the group captured and caught since this occurs quite early on in the film. With the first sign of car trouble allowing the second instance to appear just as helpful and then turning it around immediately, there’s a disorienting nature to the immediacy of them getting taken. The efficiency they accomplish it and have the group taken back to their house where they awake chained up or just held in various rooms of the dilapidated house where they have to confront the disturbed family in such a state is quite chilling with the way this sets everything in motion.

Once trapped by the family, the film picks up considerably with its emphasis on the brutality and cruelty the family displays. Treating the butchery and carnage against not just them but the other remaining captives in their care as nothing out of the ordinary where they’re free to sexually molest anyone they want when they want or play ruthless games of life-or-death with them adds a great amount of intrigue to what’s about to happen to them. The psychological torment and toll this takes in their need to escape which has a lot to like as the scenes of realization that sink in once they realize the true nature of the games being played is quite enjoyable for how dark it goes.

That said, there are a few minor issues with this one. One of the biggest problems is the strange relationship the group has while being captured, as they are clearly under the family’s rule and torment but seem to have some liberties that they really shouldn’t. The brothers are able to take the girls out of their rooms and walk with them along the property talking about the situation without any kind of fear displayed about being held captive, which is quite unrealistic and doesn’t fit in with the type of storyline featured here. Rather than be ruthless and barbaric all the time towards which this shows they’re capable of, these other scenes of humanity seem at odds with the rest of the film and stand out due to that.

The other aspect to hold this back is a nonsensical and irritating finale that doesn’t do this one any favors. The fact that they’re able to get out of the area alive and free of their captors on several occasions only to get caught only through stupidity without being reprimanded to halt further attempts is ludicrous to think would play out in a normal scenario. On top of that, the confrontations with the mysterious stranger who has no bearing on the film until then, especially if all he does is stand around making threats without doing anything about it or explaining what’s going on as the series of events on display are quite improbable and confusing to play out. It brings this down somewhat but not enough to fully knock this one fully.

Overview: ***.5/5
Despite some minor problems with the finale and the questionable motivation of the villains, the rest of this one is a fun and brutal captive torture effort that holds itself together rather nicely. Give this a shot if you’re a fan of these kinds of torture films or looking into this one due to the creative cast, while those that prefer more of a straightforward genre effort without the trappings provided or are turned off by the flaws should heed caution.