Raze (2013)

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A secret organisation abducts fit young women, puts them in push-up bras and tight white vests, and makes them duke it out to the death in a pit. Sounds like guaranteed exploitation heaven, doesn't it? Well it isn't… against all the odds, director Josh C. Waller has managed to make this delightfully trashy concept into a really dull film that amounts to little more than a series of repetitive, unimaginative, unconvincing fist-fights between characters that it's hard to give two hoots about.Lead Zoë Bell, a stunt-woman turned actress, does admittedly look like she can handle herself in a fight, with an athletic physique and a face that has clearly taken a bit of a pounding in the past (from a distance, she looks like Sean Penn in Fast Times at Ridgemont High), but the rest of the girls are mere eye-candy, completely unconvincing as bare-knuckle brawlers. Most look like they would give up all hope if they broke so much as a fingernail.Orchestrating the violence for the benefit of an exclusive audience of rich sadists are married couple Joseph (Doug Jones) and Elizabeth (the once sultry Sherilyn Fenn, who needs to update her profile pic to avoid future disappointment). These despicable reprobates predictably get their comeuppance in the final act, when our heroine, Sabrina (Bell), escapes her confines after playing possum during her final fight. Here, we get my personal hilarious highlight (or should that be lowlight?) of the whole film, as Fenn grabs a weapon to try and kill Sabrina—never has an actress looked less comfortable in a fight scene.

The subject matter of this prison/cage fighting movie is pure exploitation, and it is marketed as such rather adroitly. However, by the time the first fight scene has concluded, there is little in the way of cheap thrills to be had from this sort of thing, and instead, we're presented with the kind of gritty brutality that only comes along in indy, low-budget concept pieces like this, from Josh Waller, directing his feature film debut with a lot of grass-roots style and a panache that is all the more skillful in its' lack of show-off techniques. Instead, we're given a very raw, lean piece of work which focuses on violence, rather on well-crafted fight scenes, despite the presence of a well-choreographed team of stunt performers, fronted by one of the most physically talented stuntwomen in the business, Zoe Bell.There is little time devoted to navel-gazing, and yet the characterisation does sometimes feel a little on the clunky side, although it is doubtful that its' absence would provide us with anything better. Without it, there would be fight after fight, followed by scenes of painful silence, and the full horror of the situation. Whilst the teary eyed drama makes a precarious balance with the blood and guts of the fight scenes, perhaps the most impressive feature here is the sense of hopelessness which is created. Hopeful, this movie isn't, and in many ways, it's an adult, and female, version of "Lord of the Flies", only with a more artificially constructed set up. The idea here, is that by fighting, killing and surviving, the survivor of this ordeal will become somehow awakened, enlightened, and open themselves up to a wider world of awareness. That this idea is set up by a bunch of mad-eyed religious fanatics strains credibility, although the contrast between opulent upper class, and filthy stone-walled dungeons is nothing new, yet remains valid. The ending tells us, quite simply, that this is a load of rubbish, and, rather than being designed for this purpose, the idea of nobility through killing, of a "Napoleon" complex, is a myth, and that killing actually provides nothing but thrills for the rich, and that, for the survivor, no matter how tough she is, they will always be stronger. Contrived? Perhaps. But the drama is played out convincingly, and the power of the hellish fight scenes is arguably as anti-stereotypical as anything seen in films. There are not a series of carefully contrived, well-scripted and erotically filmed scenes of rolling around and grunting. This is brutal, survival of the fittest stuff, and the edginess of the movie's central dilemma – kill to save your loved ones, or do nothing and let them die – is well utilised. The tagline; "No man could handle this" is well put; This scenario with a male cast would scarcely feature the same level of horror, and uneasiness, and the reversion to savagery would be far less of a shock.Acting is generally nothing special, but then, the real drama of this situation comes not from the script, or the over-embellishment of certain of the actresses, but in the heat of the fight sequences, in the minute reactions, in the bursting of the welled up emotions and fears, and in sharing that feeling. It's a film not so much about the journey of its characters, or their own personal features, but rather, about seeing how you would react in this situation yourself; in short, it is a film which speaks directly to the audience, with a well-shaped hell of anti-humanity. Throughout the entire ninety minutes, the feeling of impending doom, of inner pain, and futile hopelessness, as relationships build feebly, only to be broken down again minutes later, or as they realise just how little they can actually do.Which is why, in the truest sense of the word, this is a horror film, about the horrors of being faced with that most primal of dramas. And be sure that this isn't just a bad excuse for trotting out some more niche genre fare; You will feel every punch, and every angry exhalation, and realise that fights are basically just someone pummelling bits of their body against bits of someone else's, in the hope that they'll break before you do, and that death isn't administered with a quick twist, or a carefully placed blow. It takes time, and it isn't exciting, or cool. It's actually the worst thing that you can imagine. Even the climactic fight scene, when Sabrina takes on the films supposed "villain" – i.e, the one who's enjoying it all – is deliberately restrained, rather than being played out for drama. Every kind of painful situation is played, and it is when the film is at its' most explicitly brutal, that it becomes the most emotionally painful. Hey, look. Someone has made violence in horror movies scary again. And all it took was a small, dedicated cast of women, and a director with a strong vision, and sense of purpose.

Wow. Why did they even bother trying to make this into a movie? They clearly wanted to focus only on the fighting and gore so why not just make a movie about that and exclude the feeble attempt at acting? It like with a horrible porn. Skip the acting and get to the action. The movie never even fully explained the ruse that was used to abduct the women, and we never really got a glimpse into the personal lives of any of the women whereby not feeling any kind of connection or sympathy for the women.The man and his wife who did the abducting tried to come off as regal and mysterious but instead came off as silly and campy. This whole production was a travesty. An embarrassment. None of the characters had acting ability, probably took their first acting class before production began. After the first 15 minutes of the film I pretty much skipped to the end because it was not worth the hour and change of my time.

While torturing myself with that awful movie for an entire 1:31:59 I couldn't stop asking what if the girls start making out every time when they put together on that pit for fight? On this nonsense movie somehow an organization captured troublesome ladies and forcing them to fight with each other claiming that their relatives are in danger. But no one actually noticing that the videos of their beloved ones are mostly on loop and they are actually not getting any real news from their "beloved ones"Violence level of the fighting scenes are over-rated because same amount of violence is already on MMA Women out there in real life and its "legal" and everyone watch the same amount of violence on public TV on that so called "sport" So the "illegal activity" that is going on the story of that movie is utterly pointless. Because MMA Women is actually doing the same thing.There's no acting or camera work or anything artistic in this movie. If you approach to the movie on these topics; there are better student movies with no budget.I'd say skip it but who doesn't enjoy a good cat fight? If people don't like awfully violent fighting scenes there wouldn't be a MMA at first place.