The Tortured

The Tortured (2010)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

After their child is kidnapped, tortured and murdered, the grieving parents (Erika Christensen, Jesse Metcalfe) decide to kidnap the man responsible on his transport to prison and teach him the true meaning of torture. THE TORTURED has a good idea (what would you do to the man who killed your child) but sadly the execution is so bad and so full of plot holes that at times the film becomes rather laughable. I think a lot of the blame has to go towards the director because the film just isn't intense, isn't scary and it's really hard to connect with the parents. As a parent of a three-year-old, what happens to the kid here would be one of the most horrible things you could experience and I understand where the parents would want to seek their own revenge. The problem is that the parents here do so many stupid things that you really have to wonder who the filmmakers were trying to fool. One of the biggest problems is when the parents kidnap the prisoner, they seem to overlook their fingerprints would be all over the stolen car. There's a manhunt for the prisoner and even though the U.S. Marshalls are told where he's at, it takes them forever to actually get there. All of this leads to an eventual twist in the story and I will admit that I found this to be the best thing in the film. Still, with so many other plot holes it was just impossible to take the film serious. The torture scenes are all pretty graphic but I'd say no more so than what you've seen in films like SAW or HOSTEL. This film, however, doesn't work as a drama, a thriller or as a horror movie. It's just too flat all around and it just never comes to life.

Craig and Elise Landry (Jesse Metcalfe and Erika Christensen) have their world torn apart when John Kozlowski (Bill Moseley), a drooling psychopath with deep-seated parent issues and an unrivalled collection of disturbing curios in his basement, abducts and murders their six year old son. When the killer is caught and brought to trial, but only receives a 25 year jail sentence for his heinous crime, the distraught couple decide to take the law into their own hands and exact a far more fitting punishment.

The Tortured is, as the title suggests, yet another in the recent wave of horror films that have (un)popularly been dubbed 'torture porn'; however, rather than try to make the viewer turn away in disgust at gory atrocities inflicted upon innocent victims, as is usually the case with this sub-genre, the intention here is to appeal to the audience's most primal emotions, fulfilling a basic desire for sweet justice by depicting a twisted piece of human garbage on the receiving end of some serious pain and humiliation for a change.

This twist on an already well-worn theme might have worked if it wasn't for an unnecessary and totally unbelievable twist at the end which robs the viewer of any real satisfaction. Add the fact that the violence perpetrated is far from stomach churning (the gore is most unimpressive with the yuckiest scene turning out to be a dream) and the plot requires major suspension of disbelief (for example, one is expected to believe that, after a van has somersaulted off a bridge, sailed through the air, and crashed face-down onto some jagged rocks, those inside have all miraculously survived death), and what you have is a bland and instantly forgettable effort, another nail in the coffin for a horror trend that should have been buried long ago.

I saw this for the first time recently inspite of the dvd lying in my drawer for more than a decade.

I still remember buying the dvd cos of the poster of that of a man upside down in a mask n letters written boldly, from the producers of Saw.

I never got interested in playing the dvd aft reading some bad reviews stating that it is another torture porn n i hate torture porns.

Well, this movie has a good story n a bit similar to Seven Days.

Coincidentally I revisited Babysitter Wanted jus a day back which has Bill Moseley in a tiny role n this movie too has Moseley in a tiny role.

The bothering stuff is that the movie is filled with too many plot holes.

The couple's plan is ridiculous n it is not at all a good plan.

Leaving fingerprints all over the van, surviving a van tumbling down, can't recognise a face just cos it's blood stained, not getting cautious when a man with a dog enters the cabin, cops taking hell lottuva time to locate a cabin inspite of the instructions given by the man with a dog, cops never bother to check the cabin or search for the other missing convict, cops never bother to take the man with the dog n ask the details about the couple holding the convict in the cabin, the list goes on..

It's garbage like this keeps people from seeing GOOD movies like "SAW". The only thing that saved this film for me was the company I was with while watching it. Had I been by myself, I would have turned it off halfway though. Really dumb. Don't waste your time. The only reason it gets 3 stars from me is because the ending actually surprised me a little bit. But not enough to recommend it to anyone. So here it is: A young couple lose their very young son to a killer who kidnaps and seemingly beats him to death. (It doesn't really get into HOW the boy dies.) Anyways, the guy gets caught, and while he is being transported to prison, the van driver gets sick (because the boys parents poisoned him) And pulls off to the side of the road. The boy's dad then jumps in the still running van and takes off to kidnap the killer and get his revenge for killing his son. The guy crashes the van, tossing the killer out onto the road. They pick him up and take him to a special lair where the sad parents proceed to torture the guy for a couple days. The ending WAS a little surprising, which helped a little. But all in all it was a waste of time and a little upsetting that a movie like this can make the good horror movies look so bad.

A great concept but the delivery sucks mostly due to bad writing. Plotholes and the forced lowquality plot twist at the end ruin it.

How is a tax evader transported in a van with a child killer?

How did they not know they had the wrong guy, shouldn't Kozlowski's face be burned in their memory?

How did the wrong guy know the kids name?

How did the dog guy not get suspicious at all?

Overall I like the revenge vibe, I also like how dark the whole movie really is. Still, seems like they really wanted to force it to be as disturbing as posible, even if it means the plot is gonna suck. Could have been a gem.