Torment (2013)

Who payed the critics

Pretty Good

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

***Very Mild Spoilers***The mildly serviceable acting and the mediocre characterization in the first third of the film is the only reason, I have given this 2 stars. Otherwise, it would be totally irredeemable. It's one of the darkest movies I have ever seen. Not in tone, but actual lighting. It's impossible to see about half of this movie. I applaud their efforts for realistic lighting, but all it truly accomplished was making this movie incredibly hard to see.It's your typical home invasion style thriller. And, when I say typical, you have probably seen every trope this movie will throw at you before. Full disclosure, I'm not a fan of Haneke's Funny Games. I think for all of the intelligent criticism leveled at the audience, the director and studios are miraculously spared. Even though, they are the ones profiteering from violent and exploitative cinema. I bring this up, because to be honest, Torment is a caricature of Funny Games. It lacks the wit or genuine suspense. And, though I loathed Funny Games, it garnered a strong emotional response from me. This movie made me feel nothing. Not even Nihilism. Literally, nothing.The first third is okay, and the characterization is subtle, often that it works in explaining who these people are. It's also daytime and a rare point of high visibility in the film. We have the semi-typical dysfunctional family unit. And, I actually bought that. Over time, it devolves quickly, once horror is injected.Hillbilly sadists invade their home and seemingly abduct the son of the two protagonists. We're left to wonder if indeed he was abducted or not. Over the course of the movie, we discover to some small extent the motivation behind the psychopathic hillbillies, but barely. Don't expect any satisfying explanations as to their psychopathy, because you will not receive one.The family goes through typical "escaping the killer" scenarios. And without offering too much information, it's essentially what you'd expect. The father is put to some test of his moral fortitude. But, it's pretty laughable. Time and again I thought, Funny Games. Without going bit by bit, if you've seen both films, the way this film blatantly copies numerous scenes in Funny Games is mildly embarrassing. I'm not sure if it's meant as homage. But it just feels like unintended plagiarism. Overall, Tormented is a very weak movie with below sub-par writing that has no intention for a genuine conclusion (sequel!). What we're given about the characters is unimportant and dissatisfying for the most part. While our actual questions are never answered. Don't waste your time with this one. Watch Funny Games. If you're like me, you'll hate it, but at least it will mean something to you. Where, this movie is just a melange of bad horror tropes compiled into a pitch black universe where their concept of psychological terror is veiled cliché.

I don't write reviews often, but this movie is so bad that I wanted to warn other people.I was interested in the mickey-mouse-killer-portrait, so I paid no heed to the 4,7 rating. Besides, I'm always looking for that hidden gem horror movie, so I gave it a shot. Big mistake.Not once in the whole movie I was even close to be scared, character development is non-existent, and the use of music is one of the worst I've seen in my life, not to mention the abuse of clichés throughout the movie.If you are like me, then you will probably watch the movie anyway, and I can't really blame you. I just hope that someone will read this and spare the 1 hour 20 minutes.

After the death of his mother, young Liam Morgan is finding it hard to accept that his father, Cory, has remarried and shows resentment towards his new stepmother, Sarah. They make the decision go and spend some time away at their summer home in the hope that the time together will help Liam come to terms with the new situation, and for him and Sarah to become closer. However, what was planned as a hopeful family vacation turns into a nightmare when they are stalked by a crazed family and find out that Liam has gone missing. When Cory finds out that the group intends to take Liam as one of their own, he resorts to anything he can to take back his family.Torment was a bit of a mixed bag in all honesty, unfortunately most of it pretty boring and not all that good. The film has actually got a Strangers/You're Next kind of feel to it as well....just not as good though. The film starts off pretty well, building up what seemed to be quite a decent story, but it kind of fell away when it got to a certain point. From there on in, it got a bit silly and quite nonsensical in the decisions that Cory or Sarah started to make. I know you don't really watch a film like this for realism, but still some of the decisions were a bit ridiculous i.e. firing a flare gun when trying to avoid detection from the "bad guys".Another unfortunate thing was the decision for the masks that the intruders wore. You look at the picture for the film cover and think "maybe it has a different effect in the film", but nope....it's actually still amusing to see a 6ft 3 man wearing a mouse mask like that. In fact, judging by what we see of the main intruders face, he probably would have been scarier to keep the mask off. Tie that off with some poor acting and there is really not that much you can find that is all that good about this movie.Not a movie to avoid at all costs, but definitely not a classic by any stretch of the imagination.

The other reviewers give this movie some pretty low scores. Realistically it's no worse than a variety of other horror films out there. To say that it has no redeeming qualities is outright false. It's filmed well, the acting is reasonable (where it counts), and it has a certain creepiness right off.Also, it has Katherine Isabelle in it, which is the reason I watched it to begin with. OK, I confessed. Back to the review.Unfortunately, like most horror movies, the scare/creepy factor lessens considerably toward the middle of the film as things start to emerge from the dark to the light. The villains, who are clearly insane, make very little sense to begin with, and the writers should have left it at that. You can't explain insanity, and you shouldn't try.But instead the writers keep hinting that there is a method to the madness, and that the villains are up to something very specific. Crazy, yes, but specific. But there are simply too many unanswered questions, and the motivations behind the characters' actions are just convoluted at best.Essentially, every element of a reasonably good film is here except that the bad guys don't really make sense, which just kills it for me.