The movie opens with a “Saw” like set-up in the woods that has a girl bound to a tree and balanced precariously on a log which, if she falls off, will choke her to death. There is a crudely stitched wound in her belly which contains a razor blade that she uses to cut herself loose only to be met by her captor who asks her; “do you want to carry on?” Her response is to take his gun and kill herself. Pretty good start but its all downhill from there.
We are then introduced to Hope, who has a great first date and goes home to her babysitter and daughter on a high. We barely get to know anything about her before she falls asleep and wakes up in the exact same trap as the girl in the opening sequence. There is no clue as to how she got there and you assume that will be revealed later but it never is. This is just the first of the many flaws for me. When she gets loose and is taken by her kidnapper back to his camp where she becomes enslaved, you just don't know enough about her to really care what happens. On top of all that, she spends the next 30 minutes of the movie screaming and crying which becomes so grating that you hope the bad guy will just finish her off.
There is also never any explanation as to why she was chosen or what has caused “the man”, as he is listed in the credits, to want to do these acts in the first place. Her capture is spread out over 21 days, each one duller than the last, and during that period there are the usual failed escape attempts, torture and punishment both physical and psychological. During this period the man brings another girl into camp and repeats the process, and this girls screaming is even more intense and annoying than the first.
The movie aims for a shock ending but I was so bored by this point that it really had no effect on me and I actually found it to be a little hokey to be honest.
A small budget film that looks and feels like small budget and don't be sucked in by the “Unrated” stamp on the cover of the DVD as there is nothing in here that anyone will find particularly gross or shocking. A complete waste of 90 minutes for me.
0 stars out of 5
