Captivity (2007)

I love this movie so much

Truly Dreadful Film

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Awakening in a strange room, a glamorous supermodel and another prisoner learn they have been abducted by a crazed madman intent on torturing them in various brutal traps and must find a way out of their predicament to survive the encounter together.While there's some good stuff to this one, the fact that there's a lot more flaws really makes this one quite low. One of the biggest ones is that there's really no rationale offered for why anything goes on in here. It's supposed to go without saying that the cause is due to feeling incredibly attracted to her, but that still doesn't explain certain motivations present. The blank, expressionless and completely unknown killer here doesn't strike any kind of fear about himself physically, which is why offering a sort of explanation would've gone a long-way towards what the purpose of doing this would've been. One of the biggest culprits is the ending, which is where it's supposed to all come together, yet instead it just doesn't hold any impact at all. It glosses over the answer and doesn't provide any real truth to the matter, and instead it just makes the whole film feel incredibly confused due to not giving anything of any real definitive clarity, especially with why he held both of them together. Another problem in the film is the fact that there's way too much time spent on making sure the characters are drugged, which gets old after a while. It doesn't make for very engaging viewing knowing that, immediately afterward, she's going to be drugged out to ensure that the cycle continues. Rather, do it rarely or make it a mystery as to what's occurring to her, as she keeps blanking out but is unsure of why, building up mystery to what's happening there rather than spell it out from the very beginning and not offering any chance of doing so otherwise. The last flaw to this one is the fact that, through the majority of the film, hardly anything really interesting happens. Sure, the tortures are fine and graphic, but it just runs through the motions without anything there to make them standout nor does anything interesting with the shots of her candid interviews, and it suffers for that. Along with some lame tortures and the unthreatening killer, these here are the film's problems. There was a few things about this one that actually worked. One of the biggest is that there's a really spectacular setting in here where all the action takes place, with the different amount of really dangerous-looking devices strung up throughout the walls, the dirty, grimy feel with all the dried blood and damp-looking surroundings. This effectively gives off the feeling of being a rather creepy-looking setting and appropriate for a series of crazy tortures to happen. There's a really good one inside an hourglass that is incredibly suspenseful, a falling acid trap and the different encounters down in the basement are quite nice, as is a full-on extended chase at the end that is incredibly fun and makes for a lot of good stuff. From the different entanglements through the house to the fun finale down in the basement and even the bloodshed, this scene has a lot to like going for it and it's the best thing about the film. These here are what hold this up but the flaws are just too much for this one.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, animal violence and a shadowy Sex Scene

Captivity is the ultimate shocker film of last decade. It was shot and re-shot so poorly that there wasn't a single scene that didn't scream so loud from its own lack of quality and actual mental thought process. Realizing that the movie had to be re-shot for genre purposes, there isn't much excuse for a professional crew to come up with nonsense. The premise is clear, but when every scene looks like Elisha Cuthbert changed wardrobe, makeup, and hair styles about 3 times per, you start to wonder what chance they had to make this film successful.This movie is so incredibly unbearable that they even misspell Michael Harney's name in the end credits. Enough said?

This movie was available on Xfinity on-demand, which is an app on my HD kindle. It is a good example of the "Extreme Horror" genre which has developed over the past 10 years since the first "Saw" movie.As so many have mentioned, the plot is nothing new: a stunning model gets kidnapped, put in a dungeon and subject to unimaginable horrors. Yet the lighting, cinematography and editing combine to thrust "Captivity" a notch above the typical movie trying to cash in on the Extreme Horror bandwagon. The musical score also helps ratchet up the tension and stays out of the way as it should.Some of the scenes and shots are truly horrifying, which impressed me since I have a mini-hobby of seeking out well-done shocker movies and it takes a lot to get my heart racing. There's one truly gory scene and it's more psychological than physical, which was clever.Other reviewers have mentioned that the star Elisha Cuthbert looked too "good" during the torturous ordeal: all her hair in place and nicely done, good makeup and on and on. So? She was definitely cast as eye candy and pleasing on the eye to male audience members who sympathize and root for her. Would it have helped to gunk her up a little for a more gritty, grisly effect? No, this is not that kind of movie and the producers knew it.So is she just a screaming, naive blond? No. Through a clever series of twists and turns at the end she not only shows some smarts but some kick-ass qualities as well. The movie ends satisfyingly and all in all is worthwhile for any horror or thriller movie fan.

Saw meets Hostel in this entertaining, but painfully predictable film. Elisha Cuthbert is the difference between Captivity and the dozens of lame horror movies produced every year. Don't get me wrong, Captivity is full of gore and has a ridiculously stupid storyline, but it's not that bad, and Cuthbert is the reason. The veteran actress, best known as Kim Bauer and The Girl Next Door, is very methodical with every move she makes and that really manages to keep your attention. The maze of traps, moving walls, and pitfalls were also really cool, but outside of that and Cuthbert, Captivity is your typical gore fest, with zero character development, and a chilling story that really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I liked it for the little things, but overall, there's nothing special here, just another lame horror movie, that happened to land the right star.