Torment

This movie is definitely not terrible. It's not as classy as The Strangers or as fun as some other recent home invasion flix but, I honestly thought it was good enough to watch twice. Katharine Isabelle always demands my attention and this time I think the film worked for her. At the very least the film adds positively to her standing as one of our favorite new age scream queens.. The film is shot well, the acting's not terrible, there's some genuine suspense here and a fairly scary bad guy with a little twist or two along the way. As an avid horror fan who wades through piles of crappy movie weekly looking for the hidden gems, I'd say this film will please most genre fans. I don't know just good a sequel would be though. Might have to steer clear of that one...lol.

The other reviewers give this movie some pretty low scores. Realistically it's no worse than a variety of other horror films out there. To say that it has no redeeming qualities is outright false. It's filmed well, the acting is reasonable (where it counts), and it has a certain creepiness right off.

Also, it has Katherine Isabelle in it, which is the reason I watched it to begin with. OK, I confessed. Back to the review.

Unfortunately, like most horror movies, the scare/creepy factor lessens considerably toward the middle of the film as things start to emerge from the dark to the light. The villains, who are clearly insane, make very little sense to begin with, and the writers should have left it at that. You can't explain insanity, and you shouldn't try.

But instead the writers keep hinting that there is a method to the madness, and that the villains are up to something very specific. Crazy, yes, but specific. But there are simply too many unanswered questions, and the motivations behind the characters' actions are just convoluted at best.

Essentially, every element of a reasonably good film is here except that the bad guys don't really make sense, which just kills it for me.

I don't want to suggest that Torment is an awful movie, but it comes close. It's not for a lack of trying, so to speak, but the overarching problem is that the movie is essentially a carbon copy of all the slasher/home invasion movies in the world and contributes very little of note. I suppose the killers' masks, taken from the heads of giant stuffed animals, is the extent of the film's originality.

Cory Morgan (Robin Dunne) and his new bride Sarah (Katharine Isabelle) arrive at Cory's summer home (secluded, of course), with Cory's son Liam (Peter DaCunha) in tow. The kid resents his stepmom a little, because she's not Mom. Mom's dead, in case you were wondering. Unfortunately, that fact has almost no bearing on the plot, which feels like a tremendous waste of opportunity. At any rate, when the Morgans arrive at the house they quickly learn that squatters have been there very recently - there's spoiled food left out and some blood on the wall. They call the cops, and good ol' Office Hawkings (Stephen McHattie) tells them that teenagers probably hung out there and had a party or something. Doesn't explain the blood too much, but the Morgans don't press him for more info. Just another kindly old officer of the law lending a homespun helping hand, is all.

During their first night in the house, Sarah awakes to a noise downstairs, which happens in most horror films anyway. When she and Cory investigate, they find nothing out of the ordinary - except that little Liam is now missing. And thus begins endless searching (for the boy) and fleeing (from the crazy cult who snatched him and is right next door) that comprises basically the balance of the movie. Run into forest, be pursued by masked lunatic, fire off every flare in your road flare gun so you can see where you're going, escape into your house, get attacked by another masked lunatic, run out of the house and into a muddy stream where you fend off the attacker, and so on.

Isabelle looks great and appears capable of being a damsel in distress. Dunne is a little more lackluster. Young DaCunha's performance felt more authentic than that of any of the adults. But what made this film particularly maddening were the little hints of backstory that are never really resolved. For example, when Cory does find Liam and confronts the kidnapping maniacs, it's strongly implied that he (Cory) knows who these people are, knows their history, knows why they've chosen poor Liam. Do we, the audience, get to discover this as well? We do not. And maybe it would have helped if we did, because a gentle, plausible twist would have been welcome over the generic, often listless storyline.

Torment is not so bad it's good. It's a mediocre entry in a field that's already very overloaded with mediocrity. There isn't even all that much blood, thereby depriving those who love a good gorefest from getting their money's worth. So, no gore, a thin plot, lousy acting, and and overwhelming sense of pointlessness all add up to a movie that's just not worth your time.

One of my favourite horror icons and scream queens Katherine Isabelle plays Sarah Morgan. The new partner or wife to Corey and unlikable mum to Liam. I will say she's pretty good here and has more fighting power than other roles. The Morgan family move out to what seems like the middle of no where and it's not yet apparent anything is wrong. I won't go to much into the events of what happened but the family find themselves stalked by some strangers that wear the dismembered heads of Liam's stuffed toys somehow. And it's really quite scary. This film was made really well and built up tention well. Overall this was a pretty good horror with a pretty great cast.

The best thing about this film is that it has good, creepy costumes, but other than that there really is nothing very good about it. The operative word is cliché, it pushes no boundaries and creates nothing new. The twist at the end caused me to say, "oh, that's mildly interesting", but it really had no capacity to really surprise or even any relevance. The adult leads play their parts well enough, and the motivation for the assault is plausible enough although not very likely. The leads are not as incompetent as in many such movies, but nor are they particularly compelling or innovative.

Watch it if you have nothing better to do but don't make an event out of it by inviting over a bunch of friends and expecting a scare fest, because it does not deliver much on any front.