The Tortured Review

Movie: The Tortured
By: Maniac E
Date: September 1, 2011

The Tortured or is it me that’s being tortured?

The production team behind Saw made another torture movie in the setting of Hostel. This wouldn’t be a bad effort except it doesn’t turn out the way most of us would want to see it. If you watch this movie it may even be you are getting a strong Déjà vu feeling. The plot is almost the same as the movie: 7 Days. We will go into the comparison of the two movies later on in the review.

Story:

A comfortably well-off suburban couple have their happiness shattered when their 12 year-old son Benjamin is kidnapped while playing in the front yard of their house, only to later be found murdered by investigating police officers at the home of a demented pedophile called Kozlowski (Bill Moseley). After his sentence is lowered to a maximum of 25 years for agreeing to provide details which will help identify the remains of other missing children that have been found in his backyard, distraught surgeon Graig (Jesse Metcalfe) and his estate agent wife Elise (Erika Christensen) find it impossible to cope with the thought that their son's killer could be back on the streets in as little as ten years. They concoct a plan to kidnap Kozlowski, take him to a deserted countryside property, and have their revenge by slowly torturing him.

At only 78 minutes, there isn’t much development in The Tortured. We breeze through the child abduction and the trial right into the torturous basement in an abandoned home that will be the setting for the majority of the film. We do get to watch as the police follow clues to try and find out what happened to their prisoner, but it is hardly engaging and is likely there just to keep extend the running time further than a simple hour. The acting isn’t bad but the actors just can’t bring you into their mind set. And in this case it means pretty much a lacking story that you can relate to or even think maybe I would do the same in this situation.

As said in the intro the movie has a lot of similar things with the Canadian French thriller movie: 7 Days. Unfortunately, "The Tortured" comes off the worst from the unavoidable comparison. "7 Days" was a bleak, utterly serious anatomy of the psychology of grief and revenge; "The Tortured" is an efficient enough but overwrought thriller, which often comes across more like a TV movie of the week which has strayed uncomfortably into emotive areas which it simply does not have the maturity or emotional breadth to be able to deal with without the results looking crass and exploitative.

Is the movie only bad I wouldn’t say that but its lacking on too many areas. It has some nice shots and the movie gets more atmosphere and gritty once they enter the basement scenes. It makes sure you get that raw footage of someone getting tortured. The movie in the end even has a nice turnaround ( I won’t spoil this part). As said before the movie is just not that convincing and the parents act like they have no alternatives to resort to. But nowhere in the movie the acting is really real. Yes, you will see blood and yes you will see some nasty torture parts. Just don’t get your hopes up for any long gasmask scenes or pure horrific torture scenes. I would suggest a one watch only and put the movie away. This isn’t something you will be picking up anytime real soon again. After the movie I myself feel a bit tortured for going through this.