Équation meurtrière

For fans of the detective and suspense genres, this is a worthwhile pick. One could legitimately criticize the art direction as being derivative of "Se7en" or "Saw," but why bother? The writing, the direction, and particularly the acting are so far superior to the vast majority of the horror/thriller/suspense movies that are churned out by the hundreds these days that you'd be denying yourself the chance to see an intelligent, thought-provoking, not unbelievable, suspenseful film if you passed on it for that reason.

It is, psychologically, dark; and there are a few scenes of torture - but they aren't gratuitous and they aren't gratuitously gory. They are essential to advancing the plot and developing the characters; and most of the violence is implied, not shown. If you're looking for torture porn, you'll be disappointed.

The plot twists are interesting, atypical, and believable, and the movie has something significant and thought-provoking to say about the human condition. The characters (with the exception of Melissa George's) are written with moral complexity, and all of the acting (including Ms. George's) is top-notch.

It's a shame this didn't get a theatrical release in the U.S. Judging from the disappointment of torture-porn fans, my guess is that it was not well-marketed.

The most influential American horror movie of the last 20 years is "Seven". This much is undeniable. I really liked "Seven". Great movie. It might be one of my favourites. The only problem is that every inner city set horror thriller made since comes across, to me, as "Seven"-lite.

Which brings me to "Waz".

A city of permanent night. A cop on the edge. A diabolical killer. Inventive, ingenious torture and murder. Victims with a reason for being victimised.

Yup. "Seven"-lite. Not necessarily a bad thing in itself, because you have to take every movie on it's own merits, but disappointing when witnessed over and over again.

"Waz" isn't bad. It is just unoriginal and a triumph of style over substance. The city is effectively portrayed as grim, dirty, cold and wet. You wouldn't want to go there on holiday. You wouldn't want to hang out with any of these people. The tone of the film is unpleasant, seedy and black. To coin a dated phrase, a video nasty. It will get you down. It also has one of the most disturbing filmed sequences of sexual abuse I have ever seen. All insinuated, you don't see a thing, but it is horrible.

Melissa George has been better and is frankly wasted as the pouting sidekick, but "Waz" does have a superior cast (Stellan Skarsgård, Selma Blair, Tom Hardy, etc.) for what is effectively a straightforward genre movie. Some of the questions I had as to why they signed up for this movie were answered during the denouement, when the motivations behind Stellan Skarsgård's actions are revealed and his character develops levels way beyond that of a tormented cop.

So, "Waz" was OK. Not bad for a walk on the dark side.

I give 5 stars as this is one of those films that you can watch and then throw away. It's not bad but it's not good. I don't think it's the sort of film where you would pull it out of your DVD collection every couple of months to watch.

I'm not sure what type of 'film' was used but the director went for (what looked like to me) HD hand-held cams. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean Cloverfield 'all over the show' sort of filming but rather the film print it's self. I suppose this gives the film it's 'gritty' look, which I can appreciate sometimes but for this movie it just made the production look cheap. If it weren't for the famous faces you'd be forgiven for thinking you may be watching a lower budget movie.

As for the film itself....we've seen such ideas already done with 'Saw' and 'untraceable'. There's no real new context here to give a fresh light to the story. The acting was fine and I have no problem with the direction....I just wasn't drawn into the film in any way. It was difficult to hold my interest or really care about the characters on screen.

I don't really give insight into the 'story' of a film when I review as others do that better but as a film goer I'd say that this is a throw-away film.....the sort you'd rent or watch to pass some time. As I've said before, it's not a bad film....but it isn't great. Slap bang in the middle

WAZ is just another inept attempt to cash in on the torture porn card, and it tries to do so poorly.

Two cops investigate a series of murders in which one set of victims, prior to death, were forced via torture to electrocute a loved one. As they close in on the killer, it becomes apparent that one of the cops has been less than completely forthcoming about all he knows regarding the case.

There is a ridiculous number of scenes showing people getting in and out of cars in this film. The fact that that stands out as my primary memory of it says something...

I went to one of the first official screenings of this film last night at the frightfest in London, West End. It was brilliant! I wouldn't suggest that I was sceptical, but more open minded and intrigued to discover exactly what this movie was going to be like. I had heard mixed reviews about pre-completed screenings and at the end of the day, didn't want to waste my Sunday evening.

I am pleased to say that 'WaZ' is a perfect mixture of raw grit, commercial trends and generic cliché's. I am not always a fan of modern day camera work and cinematography, yet this film comfortably took it to the limit and told a great story in an innovative way. Well done to Mr Shankland and fellow cast and crew, as this film will (in my mind) no doubt keep thriller fans on the edge of their seats when spending the close approaching weekend evenings at the flicks.