Captive

Definitely a B-movie, but I didn't mind it.

It has a lot of the usual tropes for this type of movie (i.e. Young people together in a house, who have internal conflicts). The acting seems fair, at least fair when it doesn't seem like some of the actors were deliberately trying to go over the top.

My biggest complaint is that, even though there are a million different 'vampire rules' in a million different books and movies, it bugs me when a movie doesn't follow its own internal rules.

If you can't find anything else really on, I'd give it a go. One can't only watch 9s & 10s; if so, one wouldn't be watching a lot of movies.

There are some film that I just can't work out. Sometimes they included all the elements of a genre that I should like - and yet I end up hating the finished product. Other times (like now) this one has a lot of negatives, yet I came away feeling like I hadn't wasted an hour and a half of my life.

I'm not sure whether it's a 'spoiler' to talk about the promotional front cover/poster, as it's kind of in your face already whenever you see the cover art of image on a streaming service. It does kind of give the game away as to what the film's about. The blurb reads something like 'a group of stoners break into a house to get high, but get more than they bargained for.' That could leave you wondering what they come up against and what the threat is they face. But if you've seen the poster then you'll have immediately seen the fangs, indicating that this is a vampire movie.

It's sort of like an extended episode of 'Buffy' but aimed more at adults. The teenagers get stalked in one large house while the plot if peppered with some vague 'love story' elements that any good (or terrible!) teen drama is littered with.

The dialogue is average at best. The acting is passable, but, to be fair, the actors aren't given a lot to work with! The plot is kind of predictable and you'll know who's going to get their pretty little teenage throat chomped on and any bloodsplatter is blatantly computer-generated.

In other words... this film has more than its fair share of faults. And I actually quite enjoyed it. Yes, it's no masterpiece and I may not remember it this time next year, but it was serviceable enough for what it was. I was clearly in the mood for something that wasn't particularly taxing and possibly in a very forgiving mood. There's certainly a hundred better vampire movies and TV shows out there, but there are certainly some worse ones, too - at least the vamps didn't even come close to 'sparkling' in sunlight here.

I thought it was enjoyable and camp. It's quite not horror comedy, so it's not tense or scary. I expected a more traditional slasher film, but I enjoyed what they did with it instead. It felt a bit refreshing, and had fun with it.

I thought it had some nice touches, like the ouija board turning out to be them messing around, but it alerts them to the captive banging the pipes. The twist at the end was also fun.

The acting is very reasonable, the overall quality is decent, no issues with the sound quality or anything like that. It's not the most amazing film, and if you want something scary it's not going to scratch that itch. But it's fun.

Captivity (2023) was recently added to Tubi and tells the tale of a group of friends who decide to break into an empty house for a weekend of fun. Unfortunately, they find a man chained in the basement and decide to set him free. They won't let this discovery ruin their weekend, but their discovery may decide to ruin theirs...

This movie is directed by Gregg Simon (The Cook) and stars Scout Taylor-Compton (Halloween), Brendan Fehr (Final Destination), Tasie Lawrence (Good Kids), Christina Robinson (Dexter) and Katalina Parrish (The Ridiculous 6).

This is one of those horror movies that feels like they couldn't get anything right. Every decision made in the film is classic horror movie bad. The dialogue and acting are also below par and the soundtrack doesn't always match what's happening in the film, and why did we need a sex with sun glasses on scene? The horror elements are lacking with mediocre vampire transformation scenes and bad CGI attacks and blood splatter. The eyes in this were supposed to be creepy but felt like bad social media filters. The one part of the movie I enjoyed was the attack of the mother.

Overall, this is a disappointing addition to the horror genre that's not worth your time. I would score this a 1/10 and recommend skipping it.

I've never really rated Scout Taylor-Compton as a scream queen and figured it wouldn't be too long before she started to appear in low budget garbage like this (as opposed to the higher budget garbage she is best known for: Halloween and April Fool's Day).

In Captive, Taylor-Compton plays Ashley, one of a group of stoner friends who break into a house while the owners are away; while exploring the property, they discover a man chained up in the basement and release him, ignoring the crucifixes on the wall and the line of salt that encircles him. Whaddya know? He's a strigoi (that's a vampire in layman's terms) and he wants Ashley for his mate.

Predictably plotted, badly directed, poorly acted tosh, Captive is bottom tier vampire nonsense that I imagine will only appeal to Scout Taylor-Compton fans desperate to see the actress in a swimsuit. There's little in the way of special effects or gore, with blood sprays being of the badly composited digital variety, and the film's twist at the end is easy to guess.

2/10.