Torment

Torment is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the dullest films I have ever seen, and I have seen some rubbish in my time.

The plot follows a young family as they go on holiday to their house in the middle of the woods and then get tormented by some creepy rednecks. Not the most original plot ever devised, but that is the least of this film's problems.

The most egregious problem is that, for a horror film, it completely fails to be scary in any shape or form (which is kind of missing the point somewhat). But there is more, aside from the usual obvious flaws in logic that befalls poorly made horror films. It is a Herculean task to find anything likable in most of the main characters; the person playing Cory has little to no charisma, and the child is some spoilt a*****e. There is no rhyme or reason for the creepy rednecks torturing the yuppie heroes, apart from just being mentally ill, and any attempt to give them some kind of motive makes no sense. The ending is rather stupid, and one can easily see it coming. I could write a better plot than the people who wrote this abomination.

There is one reason why I am giving this film 2 stars rather than a rock bottom 1 star, and that is Katharine Isabelle. She is the only decent actor in this mess, but even so, she is still nothing spectacular (to be fair though, it would be impossible for Marlon Brando, Peter O'Toole or Laurence Olivier to look good in Torment). There was another thing I found rather worrying about Isabelle's performance. I do think that she is talented; films like Ginger Snaps and American Mary clearly show this. However, she does seem to be wasting her time and efforts starring in rubbish like this. Katharine Isabelle is in serious danger of having a career similar to Nicolas Cage, in that for every one great film you have about 5 or 6 god- awful ones.

All in all, Torment is a terrible horror film that is conspicuously lacking in horror, and I suggest that you stay away from this like the plague.

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.

And it's not for the plot, special effects, terror, surprises and most of the actors. The father was just plain bad and his kid even worse. Another reviewer wrote he wished the kid was behind it all and I confess I wish that were so. He was so annoying he spoiled what would have been a passable film. So why bother? The headliner, Katharine Isabelle. I suspect the producers and director had her in mind when they decided to waste funds on this little yarn that's been done so many times before you pretty much know what's coming next. She is becoming my favorite modern scream queen. If not for her talent I frankly wouldn't have bothered but with her in it I might just give it another try and skip the scenes with the father and his kid. And to top it all off she kicks ass. A survivor through and through. Anyway you've been warned.

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.

Newlyweds Cory and Sarah Morgan take Cory's 7-year old son Liam up to the country for some much needed family time. When it appears as if Liam has run away, psychological suspense becomes straight-out horror, as Sarah and Cory must now confront a sadistic cult-like family who have been hiding in the house all along and have taken Liam for themselves.

Some horror fans will watch anything and give this a try. Some are more discriminating and might give it a chance because it stars Katharine Isabelle. That latter reason is a good one, and bumps this film up from bad to alright.

There are some cheesy lines about the kid who will not accept his new stepmother. In such situations, these conversations probably happen and they probably sound stupid trying to reason with a kid, but they sound out of place here...

There are some good things: there is nice coloration on the cinematography, giving it a sort of sepia-influenced creepiness. And you cannot deny the interesting villains; the animal mask theme seems to be in vogue for the 2010s... these are some of the better masks out there, probably better than the ones from "You're Next".