The Tortured

The movie is not as bad as I expected seeing the reviews. I did not see the twist coming actually, but other than that a quite basic one for a boring weekend night.

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.

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.

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.

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.