Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

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

blankenshipdk Actually, embarrassingly enough, it does include me because I was highly entertained by this meretricious mass of sinematic sleaze. While viewing the feature, I was planning to rate it a 1 or 2 based on it's morally objectionable premise but realized after being solidly enthralled for an hour plus, that it deserved at least a 5 rating despite a blatant disregard for any considerations of ethical decorum. The film clips along at a brisk pace even with a primitive script, distastefully gruesome graphics, a mostly implausible story line and characters that are rather non-dimensional, only coming to life when exercising their quest to snuff someone else's out. One of the absurd scenarios include jail van cops getting their coffee roofied by our vengeful protagonists in a convenience store, pulling over a few minutes later when the drugs kick in, abandoning their vehicle containing targeted-for-vengeance bad guy, then apparently disappearing into an adjoining field to sleep it off, leaving the evil dude alone ( or is he? ) and ripe for kidnapping. This is one of those stories that tries to elicit sympathy for the main characters while simultaneously exploiting their grief, thus maintaining a highly ambivalent moral stance that is at least consistent in its sordid sophistry. The prurient/ tragic motif is also evidenced by the scene in which the naked svelte mother ( Erika Christensen ) cries in the bathtub, suggesting a sub-genre of torture grief porn. Should I look at her lithe nude figure or feel empathy? The answer is perhaps both which is where the tale may obtain its narrative power by employing a contradictory, disassociative technique. An annoying musical theme drones in the background during most of the movie which I assume is one more component in this dark psyop of a feature designed to pre program us further into a culture that endorses torture as a tonic that's good for what ails 'ya. Not recommended, so hurry up and watch it!

luvmybebegrl This movie sat in my Netflix queue for quite some time until I had one of those days that you just want to watch something but do not want to become too invested. Usually I cannot help but go on IMDb during or before a movie just to get a feel for what I am about to see, but I did not do that with this one. (I had left the iPad across the room and really did not feel like getting it). A lot of reviewers say that the movie is predictable, which in some aspects, it is. I do think, however, the storyline could have been beefed up a little bit but the events that unfolded in the short amount of time were worth a watch. The five stars I gave this film are dedicated to how the couple, mainly the mother, reacted to the kidnapping of their son. I feel like I would have reacted the same way, and while I may have been driving aimlessly I would have the urge to just go and look for my missing child. She played the part well and really embodied how utterly devastating and full of rage a mother would be. The divide for viewers will boil down to those that would never consider torturing or wanting to make someone 'pay' for the pain that they have caused them, and those that would. It is easy to say yes or no when it is not yourself in the situation and you are on the outside looking in. As the parents are leaving the courtroom post sentencing, the mother says 'I do not want him eating, exercising or jerking off (etc)' :I felt that this was a crucial line because this is one of the major issues with the justice system, because in the end- why should someone who took the life of another be allowed luxuries that some free people do not even have? As for the end of the movie,I am surprised at the confusion of some people on the message boards, but I credit that to denial on their part. I am perturbed by the fact that the couple staked out the prison and saw him being loaded into the transport van but failed to see that there was another prisoner put in the van also. I feel like this is the kind of movie that did not need the twist. Like another reviewer said, I would like to have seen the reaction of the parents after seeing the truth, some movies end in this open way and it is acceptable, but for this one - no. The ending seemed to confuse whole story for me. By that I mean, what did the filmmakers want from their audience, or what did they want the audience to take away from the film?

chow913 This movie is just plain silly. The premise is so simple and the "surprise ending" so predicable. And actions of the characters implausible. It offers nothing.The plot: Just in case you're still curious about seeing this film. Yuppie doctors have their young son kidnapped and murdered by a child serial killer. The killer pleads insanity and gets a light sentence. This in and of itself could at least made an interesting Lifetime network movie but instead it's just rushed into the first 15 minutes of the film. We feel absolutely no emotions for this couple or their son since we really don't know anything about them. Their loss is merely the set up for the premise.The vengeful couple plan to hijack the killer's prison transport and take him back their house to torture him. Since they're doctors they know how to keep him alive.The hijack results in a crash but the couple succeeds in their plan and bring the already seriously injured killer back to their basement.Here's where the movie also misses out on an easy opportunity. Movie serial killers are generally interesting. They have a gimmick, 'Manhunter,' 'Seven,' 'Saw,' 'The Crimson Rivers.' Serial killers are interesting. But not this one. The injured killer is unable to speak and we learn absolutely nothing about him. Not a thing other than fact that he's murdered several children.After 60 minutes of boring R rated torture scenes. Yes, R is boring. True horror fans have already seen the Ilsa trilogy, 'Riki Oh' and 'Cannibal Holocaust.' Anything with a mere R rating is boring by our standards.Predictably the killer escapes, but only to hang himself there on the spot leaving a suicide note begging the couple's forgiveness. If he's so injured, how did he manage to hang himself to death? Spoiler warning!!! And now the predictable twist. The tortured man wasn't actually the killer. The couple later sees on the news that the prisoner transport was actually carrying two prisoners. The serial killer and a tax evader. They've been torturing the tax evader. We see in flashbacks that the real killer actually followed the couple back to their house and was hanging around their home the whole time stealing their food. He hanged the man and wrote the suicide note to frame him.Wait a minute! That doesn't make any freaking sense! Why was the serial killer hanging around the house at all? He could have simply killed the couple and hid out from the police in their house! Or he simply could have run like hell and escaped to Canada! Why was the killer even sticking around? It only increased his chances of being caught! Why was he reduced to stealing food when he could just kill for it? He's a serial killer! So what happens now? What does the couple do? They simply go on the lamb to evade the police! There's NO scene where the couple realizes in horror that they've been torturing an innocent man and feels any guilt. Or any guilt that they freed their son's killer! Aren't they the least bit concerned that the serial killer is still on the loose? I guess not since the killer was living in the bushes outside their house for a whole month and never even harmed them once! So that's the disaster which is 'The Tormented.' I can think of no redeeming value in this film what so ever. It's not even fun to riff or make of or base a drinking game around.Just in case you're still curious about the production quality and acting in this film... it's torture.

Michael_Elliott 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.