Director: Jeremy Benson
Year: 2008
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Torture Slasher
Plot:
After taking part in a special party, a group of strangers finds themselves abducted by a slave trader and set about a series of cruel and barbaric tortures designed to prepare them for the business, forcing them to determine the price for their freedom or stay in his possession.
Review:
This was a fairly routine and predictable genre effort for this style. Like most of these genre entries, this one will live and die in how viewers respond to the means through which they get captured and what goes into torturing the individuals in question. This one comes off decently enough, with the kids being captured and abducted by a slave trader looking to sell them into the underground trafficking game and subjected to a slew of violent tactics trying to break them into compliance for potential clients, being a more than worthy setup to get things going. With the opening scenes being the group abducted and kidnapped while out for their normal lives and waking up in the compound being forcibly restrained and kept in cages, where their treatment begins, selling the hopelessness of the situation rather nicely, involving the group being stripped of their humanity during their stay there.
Outside of that, there’s little to this one that comes off with any kind of interest. The fact that the kids are so bland that we don’t get their names most of the time is a big factor here, and with this being based on the treatment that occurs toward them, but without that sense of sympathy towards them, the majority of the tortures here come across as bland and uninspiring. It doesn’t help that the few scenes where this could’ve provided something interesting involving the slave owners trying to break them like animals are pretty much ignored over scenes of the duo hoarding a sense of authority in their behavior or looking to focus on the business end of the operation, rendering everything quite difficult to get into. With this one trying to incorporate a series of illogical and highly aggravating plot twists, trying to make the finale appear quite unexpected and surprising, but just highlighting a series of obvious plot holes instead, these are what bring this down overall.
Overview: *.5/5
A by-the-numbers and unremarkable torture-porn effort, there are some worthwhile elements to be had here, but so much of it is undermined by the confines of the genre, leaving this overall underwhelming. Those with an appreciation for the style or who are curious about it will have the most to like here, while all others not appreciative of these factors should exercise extreme caution, if not outright avoid it.
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