Penance - Der Folter Keller

They don't get much worse than this. Plot makes no sense. Characters wouldn't all be that stupid. This is a "found video footage" type movie and you are supposed to believe there are many cameras and everyone's first priority, even at their own peril is to videotape things. Your life is in immediate danger, you need to stop and videotape. Please.... If you came for the nudity, it's not worth it. If you came for the violence it's uninspiring. And there really is not much nudity or violence anyway. 1 star but deserves less.

When I stumbled upon the 2009 thriller "Penance" from writer and director Jake Kennedy, I opted to sit down to watch it because it was a movie that I hadn't already seen nor heard about, plus there were some interesting names on the cast list.

However, the reality of the thing that was "Penance" was far from entertaining. The storyline and script was a scambled and incohesive dumpsterfire, and with each passing minute it got more and more difficult to suffer through the ordeal. And I ended up giving up on "Penance" 55 minutes into the torment. At that point it was just clear that the movie's script and storyline wasn't going to improve. So I tossed the towel into the ring and gave up out of sheer and utter boredom and disinterest in the movie.

So writer and director Jake Kennedy most certainly failed to entertain me with this 2009 thriller. And I use the word 'thriller' here very loosely, because the movie wasn't much of anything, aside from a cluttered mess.

I am especially dumbfounded that with names such as Jason Connery, Michael Rooker, Graham McTavish, Lochlyn Munro, Tony Todd and James Duval on the cast list that "Penance" didn't amount to anything at all. Well, I suppose even actors and actresses fire blanks once in a while.

If you enjoy thrillers, then do yourself a favor and don't waste 85 minutes on the ordeal that is "Penance". Some of us suffered through this in lesser or greater length so you don't have to.

And believe you me when I say that I am never returning to watch the remaining 30 minutes of the movie. I just don't simply care about the characters of the mockery that was supposed to resemble a storyline.

My rating of "Penance" lands on a one out of ten stars.

Penance is an example of this decade's "torture porn" craze at its worst. Cheaply made, with largely unknown actors, the film lacks the creativity of films such as Saw, substituting shock tactics for originality.

The story is nothing new. An innocent young woman is forced to become a stripper because of financial trouble, and ends up falling into the hands of a depraved religious fanatic. (I'm a humanist, and even I think this movie gives religion a bad name.) What follows is an hour long wallow in torture and extremely graphic sequences of genital mutilation, both male and female.

What makes the movie particularly disgusting is its implicit acceptance of the moral logic of the villain. The protagonist is a victim of circumstance, not a "bad" stripper like the others, who are depicted in the most stereotypical, degrading way possible. At times, this approach pushes the film into outright misogyny.

Furthermore, Penance relies on a video taping framing device ripped off from better films like REC. The result is a cheap looking digital feature that adds nothing to the overall story.

The only good points of the film are the scenes with Michael Rooker, which unfortunately comprise only ten minutes or so. One wishes the film had been focused on his character instead.

This movie strikes me on so many levels as absolute trash. I wish the lead actress was at least attractive. Although, she did have nice breasts... which was the only redeeming quality of this flick, gratuitous nudity. Especially in the case of one Eve Mauro. That girl is absolutely gorgeous. Smokin' hot! I think I would probably watch anything with her in it, at least once. But alas, I digress from my original reason for writing this.

"Candyman", "Dead Man on Campus", "Warlock" and Brandi Svennings dad all in one movie? They obviously did not invest wisely of their spoils from their actual roles in real movies... That, or the director/writer/producer caught and filmed them all in some suck-off man orgy together and blackmailed them into making this horrible movie.

Actually a documentary on fecal matter would probably be more entertaining than this movie is...

If you're a guy and thinking about watching this movie, punch yourself in the balls... really hard. That pain is as enjoyable as this movie is going to be for you. If you're a girl, rinse your eyes with vodka. Same goes...

I will never understand how something as bad as this gets made. Along the line, people kept giving this the green light. HOW? The actors and actresses agreed to be in it. WHY? Distributors agreed to release it. Again I ask, in F's-name WHY? The economy is steadily slipping, but it seems the movie industry will throw copious amounts of cash to whatever idiot comes along. (I bet the screenplay was written in crayon.) I think "Clerks" cost a little over fifty grand to make. No actors, no sets and lastly, no color. Taking all of that into account, this movie at the very least, probably cost a cool quarter mil. WTF?!?! Are you serious?!?! In this day and age, Jake Whatever-his-name-is should be lynched for wasting that much money. Like rappers and athletes buying gold and platinum jewelry/teeth/wheels... but that's a whole other rant...

I give it two stars. One for each of Eve Mauro's wonderful breasts. Nothing else.

Probably best compared to a combination of Saw and the Killing Room. Only simpletons with an attention span disability will call this torture porn. I'm starting to wonder if there's a group of people out there who simply go around labeling stuff torture porn to turn people off from otherwise great films (such as Martyrs).

It does have some nasty scenes, but more is left to the imagination than is shown, so that kills the porn element. There is torture, and largely the film involves a very psychologically disturbed person seeking revenge through torture.

So, psychological torture horror with some gore, yes. A Saw copycat, yes, in some ways. But that's far too simple to capture what's going on here. A very well thought out story.