Punishment

Previous reviewer is describing another movie not this "Punishment" movie. Not a bad independently made movie. Some parts were so intense that my girlfriend couldn't watch anymore, which I thought was cool. It has a solid story that dives into what makes a serial killer tick and provides enough guessing and twists to keep the momentum going. Great soundtrack and music throughout the film which you don't see a lot in independently low budget movies. The two main characters, James Cole and Claire Bleakley, are acted well and the killer plays sick, creepy, and demented well also. The torture scenes are intense but not overly in your face graphic like hostel but threads just enough between showing and leaving the viewer's imagination to make the scenes that much more twisted and sick. Not a blockbuster by no stretch of the imagination but definitely a fun ride.

"Punishment" seems to be an attempt to make a long version of "Criminal Minds." The film starts with the discovery of a murdered college co-ed. Her murder is investigated by a detective. This detective used to be a football player, and now has the most awesome job in the world -- he goes into the police station and then immediately leaves and spends the entire day at bars drinking or at strip clubs. In fact, when members of the police want to talk to him, they actually go to the strip club and interrupt his lap dance! I wish *I* could have a job like that!

Anyway, while the detective is continuing his investigation at various bars, the killer continues to kill college girls and we get glimpses of him with his victims. This is one of those thoughtful killers who manages to rape women while they are still clothed (which makes sense, since the strip clubs the detective goes to has strippers that also remain clothed) and threatens the victims with a nasty looking drill which I assume he used but the effects are never really mentioned by the police so I'm not sure. He also videos the murders and postmortem cleaning and sends it to the police.

A hot woman profiler is brought in to help, which causes friction since the detective objects to her being there. There are various suspects including one annoying guy who has apparently slept with every single woman in the town. The case and motive is eventually revealed and is, needless to say, underwhelming.

I sort of appreciate that they tried to make a little bit of a different film than your usual slasher, but it's really, really tough to make a low budget police procedural movie since it's been done so many time and so well on television all the time. And the detective character in this one is so dreadfully annoying it was impossible to root for him. Nice try, but a fail.