The Tortured (2010)

Number Rolled: 30

Movie Name/Year: The Tortured (2010)

Tagline: How far would you go?

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Length: 81 minutes

Rating: R

Production Companies: Twisted Pictures, LightTower Entertainment, MP Productions, Twisted Light Productions

Producer: Troy Begnaud, Mark Burg, Chad Cole, Stephen Gates, Kari Hollend, Anne Jacobsen, Oren Koules, Curtis Leopardo, Raymond Massey, Carl Mazzocone, Derik Murray, Marek Posival, Jessie Rusu, Tom Strnad, Don Zorbas, Jonathan Zucker

Director: Robert Lieberman

Writer: Marek Posival

Actors: Erika Christensen, Jesse Metcalfe, Bill Lippincott, Bill Moseley, Fulvio Cecere, Thomas Greenwood, John R. Taylor, Peter Abrams, Paul Herbert, Chelah Horsdal, Carl Mazzocone Sr.,

Stunt Doubles: Mark Aisbett, Krista Bell, Clint Carleton

Blurb from Netflix: After their young son is abducted and murdered by a psychopath, a well-heeled couple kidnaps the killer and tortures him.

Selina’s Point of View:

I want to preface what I’m about to say with a reminder that I have both seen and enjoyed the first Saw (2004), and a few of the sequels.

That said? What the fuck kind of snuff film did I just watch? Better question. Can I be put on some kind of FBI watch list FOR watching it? I mean, I google some weird stuff for my writing… so I’m probably already on that list… but still.

You might wonder what was so much worse for The Tortured that Saw doesn’t seem as bad. After all, torture-porn is torture-porn, right?

Although later sequels of Saw lost the plot a bit and spiraled off into a world without meaning, that first film had a story. It was cohesive and it took a new route that hadn’t really been seen before. It was shocking to watch, but there was substance to it.

The Tortured didn’t remind me of that first Saw. It reminded me of a much different film. One I reviewed for Trust the Dice long before Cat was ever a part of it. Before there was a unique url for the blog, before we had our current layout. You might not remember that movie unless you’ve been reading since the very beginning… but it got the absolute lowest score I had ever given a film. I broke my 1 – 5 rating rules and gave it a hard 0.

Victim (2010) was that film.

There were holes in both films that were so big that swiss cheese would have been jealous. The torture aspect really served no point and the script did the plot absolutely no favors.

Quite frankly, the only reason this film isn’t getting the same score, is because the acting wasn’t as completely horrible.

Still, when I look back and think about this movie, it’s going to be difficult for me to differentiate it from Victim in my memories. That is not a good thing.

Cat’s Point of View:

The dice are feeling sadistic lately. Last week we got a kidnapping movie – this week we got a kidnapping movie. I feel I must now resist temptation to invest in a tether that physically attaches my child to me.

There were some interesting similarities between The Tortured and the last heart-wrenching film we reviewed about kidnapping. It almost feels like this one presented a ‘what if’ scenario into what could have happened differently. Of course, there’s nothing actually tying those movies together; it’s just watching them practically back to back that brings me to draw the parallels.

While Meadowland (2015) was dark, this film took the spiraling darkness of grieving parents to an entirely new level.

This movie was hard to watch. Be warned that the title of the movie is a giant trigger warning. If you’re uncomfortable watching torture-porn, this film will likely not be your cup of tea. It wasn’t really even my cup of tea and I can take movies like Saw (2004) and Hostel (2005).

There were some scenes that just had me feeling downright queasy. Perhaps it was my emotional investment in the situation that made this harder to take.

All told, however, I bought what the film was selling. The characters were believable, relatable, and you could palpably feel their rage, grief, and desire for karmic justice.

The only real issue I had with the movie was the ending. It felt like there was quite a bit of drawn out buildup to a heart-pounding climactic moment… and then it all wrapped up too quick, and a little too neatly. It almost felt like things got carried away with the ‘meat’ of the film and then suddenly they realized ‘oh we need to end this thing, don’t we.’

I mean, I don’t know about you but I don’t think I’d want to watch a movie with this theme that would require an intermission due to length; so, I guess I’m glad they did wrap it up. I just don’t think I’d put myself through watching this one again anyway.

Languages

Speech Available: English

Subtitles Available: English

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 6%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 35%

Metascore - 9/100

Metacritic User Score – 4.2/10

IMDB Score – 5.5/10

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 1/5

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 2.5/5

Movie Trailer: