The Tortured (2010)

Please don't spend money on this.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

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!

A loving couple have one little boy named Benjamin. He is 6 years old and adorable. Now the little boy is kidnapped from his own yard. The dad witnesses the kidnapping and desperately tries to follow him and save his son. Unfortunately, he can't find him. Police are called to a house when neighbours called when they heard noises from the basement. The man ends up being the killer and apparently his yard is filled with other corpses (funny how the neighbours only started complaining when Ben was screaming).The police charged the man over Bens death and he was sentenced to 25yrs in jail. Now, the parents of Ben are not happy about him being in jail and exercising and watching TV and decide he needs punishment. He must be tortured as the killer had tortured their only son.SPOILER ALERT They devise a plan and it actually seems good. The steal the van carrying the prisoner and when driving away, flips the car and has an accident. They all survive and they take the "murderer" away for torture. Now movie was going on okay, then the major twist and major flaw. They had kidnapped the wrong prisoner. The prisoner they had kidnapped was in jail for fraud and was sentenced to 18 months. However this prisoner had some opportunity to explain himself and then says. "I don't remember anything before the car accident". The couple believe he is lying. They torture him and demand they say his sons name, but he yells "Ben" to stop the torture, but they said Benjamin around him a lot..so asking him to say that name was pointless. Anyways, the guy actually did have memory loss and wasn't the killer, but couldn't remember so he calls out Benjamin because well that was they name the repeated throughout the movie. He escapes but because he thought he was a child killer, he kills himself and writes the couple an apologetic message. The real killer is caught by police, but it was just an unsatisfying ending. I would have liked to see the couples face when the realised the real killer was still alive.Flaws 1.)They only see one prisoner get into the van when the TV camera shows both men going in at the time. 2.) They say their sons name a million times after kidnapping the prisoner but to prove he hasn't lost his memory they ask him to say the name of the their son...maybe asking something else would have been better 3.) I know he was injured and had bloody, but considering they were planning on killing him, they didn't think to double check it was the right guy 4.) They didn't check the van for possible other prisoners in there when it crashed.. 5.) The accident the husband had was fairly major, how did anyone survive. And the prisoner they kidnapped was thrown far from the Van.. how?

For a movie called "The Tortured", I feel pretty tortured from watching it. I would've given it 0 stars if it was possible.This wannabe horror-movie thriller is badly acted, coarsely edited, the audio is unsynchronized, the list goes on and on. Oh, and of course it's disgustingly graphic, which can be justified and work in some movies (i.e. Se7en), but it was just unbearable and gross in this movie.To start off, this movie's plot just screams cliché. In fact, a good way to describe this movie is just one big horror movie cliché. The horrible plot is this: A psychotic man kidnaps a couple's son while the dad is distracted and the wife is at work. The police can't find sh*t, and of course the mom, being emotionally vulnerable as she should be, blames the cops for not finding her son. Screw logic! I mean seriously, investigations take a long time, and if the killer left no clues or evidence, then it will be harder. But, the mom just "needs someone to blame", as she says later, and of course she has to stick it on the hard-working, low-paid officers. Then, the police find the man, illegally enter his home, only to discover the son is already dead. Wow. Then, as the clichés roll on, the couple decide to get revenge on the man. Nothing in this movie ever deviates from formula. In fact, I'm not even sure if there IS a formula to this movie, as it seems like a jumbled mess.Besides the formulaic, cliché plot line, the editing is horrible. Many times, a character might be saying something but their mouth isn't moving, or it's unsynchronized. Hence, the title of my review. Whoever edited this movie needs to go back to film school immediately.Another thing is the picture and cinematography. The whole movie, save the flashbacks, is all washed out in color. This is a misconception with horror film directors that by washing out your film, it makes it scarier. All it does is make you look desperate and your film look amateurish. On another note, the cinematography was also abysmal, scoring no points for this otherwise dismal film. The shots were rough, almost feeling like a montage. They would have the same shot just moved a couple of inches over. Why they felt the need to do that is beyond me. Also, the shots had no style or feel to them, as if the editor and cinematographer just said "screw it" and slapped together the shots to make this movie.Moreover, the movie is disgustingly graphic. What was once fresh and gripping in Se7en is now overall gross and appalling here. The couple shows no mercy as they torture their sons killer. At least John Doe had SOME shred of human decency! Additionally,it was horribly acted. I cannot fathom how these actors made it into Hollywood. They cannot act! I am half confident that I could do a better job then they did! Jesse Metcalf just sulked and sat there while Erika Christensen blathered on about how they would move on and find a better life. That was the whole first half of the movie.Also, the script was disappointing. The dialogue was-- yes, you guessed it!-- all clichés! Jesse Metcalf says to Erika Christensen, "Killing (our sons killer) isn't going to change anything." Wow, the screenwriters couldn't come up with anything more original? That's sad.To close, this was an abysmal, depressing, disgustingly graphic D movie with D list stars. I leave you with one thing: You'd be hard-pressed to find a worse horror movie then this. HandHStudios Rating: 0/10

The movie grabbed my attention and for that, it at least gets a 5 out of 10. But is it really that good? For fans that love a nice little torture flick, this one does just that. The story flows really well from beginning to end.So the bad guy kidnaps a couples child and tortures him to death. The grieving couple in return kidnaps the bad guy and tortures him in return. Both the wife and husband agree to do this by the way willingly.What exactly does this accomplish by the way? I understand you feel a lot of pain grieving for your lost child, but to become a monster yourself and go through the same procedure as what the kidnapper did.....well, you are no better off than the kidnapper. I'm sorry to say.For pain and torture and for those that enjoy movies like this, you won't be disappointed.