The Tortured

I also had low expectations after coming to IBMD and seeing some bad reviews about this title. After watching it, I have to say I loved it. At the beginning it seemed like an all too familiar plot, I won't spoil it, but basically its about a family who's child is kidnapped and murdered by a local psychopathic child serial killer. The family decides they want revenge and think that prison is too good for this scumbag.(a suitable part played by Bill Mosley)

I know we have seen this type of movie before and I warn you there is a lot of "uncomfortable" torture scenes going on for quite awhile that may make a few uncomfortable and turn others off. As we move towards the ending and the plot started to unfold I realized why we had to go through all that torture which wasn't mindless at all. We start to feel for this child killer/molester and the pain hes going through and we even have to be reminded that this is the scum of the earth getting what he deserves. The ending definitely is the best part and doesn't let us down in the least. No spoilers here sorry...

More for seasoned Horror fans.Great acting all the way through and each actor gave it their all, great directing, and most importantly great GORE!. Not really a hidden gem per say, but a decent genre flick that makes you think nonetheless.

I gave it a 8 even though its probably only worthy of a solid 7. I think it deserves alittle extra help from us genre fans.

At the first 25 minutes the movie try desperately, with a series of crude flashbacks, to convince the audience of something the actors themselves could not: To believe that they are suffering for the lost of their child. And even that isn't enough to make believable an apple-pie family turning the new Hewitts. An unbelievably long hour later the film was over with a very confusing but mildly interesting 5 minutes ending. One moment you are wondering "how that will turn out?", the other, roll credits. Through out the whole movie, flashbacks continue to appear over and over and over again showing nothing relevant to the plot or the characters psychology. The torture parts are also not terrible enough to please the "Painjunkies" out there, which makes sense if an upper-middle class family would perform it, but the characters most of the time make it looks like its not a big deal to do that to a person. The script is very poorly directed. Even for a TV Series Director. It takes too long to begin, and not long enough to finish. Climax of the story happens in 5 minutes. If the movie was turned into a 15 minutes episode of "Tales from the Crypt", it would be nice enough. But surely not far a movie. To the fans of Twisted Pictures, I advice you to wait for the Next Saw.

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.

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 case of 'Don't judge a book by its cover' I fell for that… It has a similar feel to 'Law Abiding Citizen' if you have seen that.

Basically, it is couple seeking revenge on the man who destroyed their lives. They 'achieve'this in brutal circumstances so be warned.

I would seriously recommend viewing this movie. You might think it isn't cutting it for you but watch until the end, I will predict that 8/10 people will say at the end 'Actually, that was quite good' However, it felt like it was missing something to give it that extra quality… maybe the timing, it was relatively short which may have been the missing part for me.

All in all, a good watch and worth the time.