Wow. Not sure where to begin with this one. It wasn't what I was expecting, that is for certain. In fact, for about the first 45 minutes of the film, I was pondering why it was even classified as horror on Netflix, as it was about the farthest thing from horror I have seen. However, the film almost immediately shifts tone and focus about halfway through and becomes a extreme "Hostel" wannabe. Unfortunaley, it is not a very good one.
The film centers on five middle-age guys who have been friends since high school. Now most are married and have kids, they all still know each other extremely well, including dirty secrets, such as infidelities and other degenerate behavior over the years. One evening, the decide to go into downtown Philadelphia for an annual football get together. Instead, two of the guys seek out women to have sex with (even though they are married). The others sit around and bitch about their unfaithful, sex-hungry pals while getting drunk. Unfortunately for the two who sought sex, they wake up chained to beds on a small, isolated room. Soon, a group of shady guys (and gals) reveal themselves and being to torture the two in very graphic and sexual ways.
The Good: Um.................some decent looking guys with hot bodies who are naked for the second half of the film to look at?
The Bad: Everything else. The whole gay element that is played up in this film is the last thing that bothered me (trust me there). It's the fact that this is a incompetently directed, poorly acted, and horribly written film. As I mentioned, the film completely shifts tone halfway through...at a point where I suspect most have stopped watching due to the sheer boringness of the first half of the film. The acting is atrocious, particularly from the guy who portrays the main villain. His screaming, tyrannical rants are cring-worthy they are so bad. The guys who are being tortured really, most of the time, act like they could care less. Characters do stupid things. Note: If your captor is actually being nice to you and helping you smoke a cigarette while explaining what you need to do to survive, it is probably NOT a good thing to shove that same cigarette into his face WHILE YOU ARE STILL CHAINED TO THE BED! Once the torture starts, it is somewhat brutal, I suppose. The two are anally raped, have their genitals mutilated, and are cut and sliced various ways. There is definitely a blatant gay undertone to this film, so if that bothers you, avoid. The ending is.....well....strange for lack of a better word and really left a bad-taste in my mouth. It certainly didn't pack the punch that I suspect the filmmakers thought it would. On top of all this, the film looks cheap and amateurish and the direction is unfocused and lazy. And most of the time with these types of films, they are effective because the audience has an investment in or liking of at least one of the characters. The writer made these characters such jerks and unflattering individuals that we don't care what happens to any of them.
This is NOT an enjoyable film to watch, not because of the violence, but because of how much of a mess it is. It tries way too hard to shock toward the end and fails because everything we see, including the performances, look so unrealistic and phony that we don't buy any of what is happening in the first place.
My Grade: F
