I Am Rage

As this film opens a man is held captive. He is tormented before his throat is cut and his blood drained into a bucket. The action then cuts to protagonist Erin; she has been invited for a weekend away with her boyfriend at his parent's remote house in the Scottish Highlands. On the way she learns that his brother and his girlfriend as well as his sister are to be there. When they arrive we see that his parents were the killers from the opening scene. It soon becomes apparent that the 'girlfriends' are intended to be the next victims. What they didn't reckon on was the fact that Erin was kidnapped before and now fuelled by perpetual rage she is more than a match for them.

This is not a great movie but if you are in the mood for trashy violence then it is rather fun. There aren't too many surprises; the opening scene lets us know the parents are murderous and we are soon informed of the reasons they want to blood. The only real question is how the various bad guys are going to die. The action is nicely varied and fairly bloody but unfortunately the fights don't feel real as we can see that blows come nowhere near hitting their target. The acting is okay; a bit of hamminess adds some unintended humour to proceedings. The setting is good although one would expect some of the characters to sound at least vaguely Scottish. Overall I'd say this is fun enough if you are in the mood for an hour and a half of trashy violence.

The critics are being too hard on this. It's a certain type of movie that you either mess with or you don't. I actually liked it! You can't go into something like this expecting a masterpiece and it was way better than expected. I mean maybe because I'm all for a woman kicking men's butts but I thought the fight scenes were pretty good for a low budget film and I liked the main characters back story. All except for the last couple of unbelievable deaths which got a bit campy, It was fun at the least. Nothing more to really say! I don't like that this thing is making me try and find things to say to meet the word requirement.

If you want a movie that's so bad it eventually entertains, this is the one for you. Starts pretty incoherently with odd thing happening after odd thing happening. Characters make ridiculous decisions and dismiss obvious red flags. As a viewer, I challenge you to discover if you are in England or America. Car and license plates - Europe. Lead character, British accent. Everyone else? American. Yet somehow the family's been there since 1863? Shrug. However, when the action finally starts it's so bad it's good. It's a direct rip off of "The Most Dangerous Game" complete with a Count Zaroff character. Enjoy.

The way the movie started, I felt it might be a real loser. A man, clearly beaten, manages to escape his binds, and then gets into a fight with one of the captors. He manages to get a knife, but hesitates, which of course is a bad idea. It then switches to Adam picking up Erin to go to his parents house, which is very isolated. On the way, they pick up his brother Michael and Sarah. The parents seem a bit strange, and at dinner offer their special drink. Of course it is drugged, as the parents are in the business of harvesting blood, rich in adrenaline, which they get by terrorizing their captives. And they have apparently a basement full of captives. But it turns out Erin is not just some young woman. At age 4, she was kidnapped, tortured and abused for 15 years before she could make her escape. And her captors didn't fare well. There is plenty of gore, blood and killings which should satisfy most viewers. It is basically an action film to be accepted on that basis.

I actually quite liked the premise of this one... a nasty ol' bloody-drinking cult kidnap young men and women and steal their life essence. Only this time the adduct the wrong woman - someone with extreme anger issues and who definitely needs stronger antidepressants.

It's a nice idea and was enjoyable enough as a simple B-movie, but my main complaint was that it could probably have been much better. When the two female protagonists are lured to the mansion, there are some major red flags that all is not good. If you're relaxing in the bath and some old woman sneaks in and pretends to be your boyfriend and starts washing your hair and when you try and say something, starts yanking it painfully. Plus their hosts don't let them change clothes in days (would any woman really put up with not changing clothes for that period of time and just not say anything?!) and when it comes to dinner, their hosts seem only too keen for them to drink dodgy-looking liquid with glee.

The first half was pretty slow, but it gets a lot better in the second half when the bodies start piling up. There's not too much gore, but the practical effects are simple and realistic. However, its major let-down was its dialogue. The two female leads are pretty good, but all the bad guys just come across as cliches and one-dimensional evil dudes with no real depth, other than to be the antagonist. The spout cliched villain lines at every turn and are more of a joke than the serious film probably wants them to be.

There's a bit of over-the-top gore at the end that feels a bit out of place, baring in mind the limits the characters were capable of during the film's runtime and you may have to suspend your disbelief for that one. But, despite its faults, overall the film is a solid little watch if you have nothing better to do and fancy some mindless hunting/action. But, if you have 'Ready or Not' in your collection, probably best to watch that - it's better in every department and a very similar premise.