I Am Rage

Beats me how they manage to raise the money to make films like this, it really does.

Most of the characters are supposed to be yanks, but that changes by the sentence.

The family settled in Scotland in the 1800s, but inexplicably don't even speak with a Scottish accent.

There's the token macho tough guy, who just has to display his oiled up biceps at all times, despite this being Scotland, and my god does it get cold up there!

There's also the preposterous storyline involving drinking blood to prolong life.

The heroine, an extremely scrawny and emaciated lady, somehow has superhuman strength.

For all these reasons this just ain't worth your time.

Some years ago, I remember watching BECKY. This movie has some of the feels from that other movie. It doesn't speed through at all. A big action film, this is not. It's a slow burn that will deliver on most of its promises, but asks for a little work along the way.

But they do put in a couple of really odd and surly performances to keep you busy with the obvious: are all these people after the same thing?

In my humble opinion, you can't ask much more from a film that encompasses The Hunt with a touch of Becky and Wolf's Creek. It delivers its biggest promises, even though it falls short of making some of the bad guys as "bad" as they can be.

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.

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.

A low budget movie, not a bad sound track, but weak acting and effects lets it down. Also the character in the cowboy hat has an amusing resemblance to Gary Glitter from the 70's british rock scene, it's an unfortunate look for him!

It's one of those movies that intrigues, you have to watch it despite the shortfalls to find out what happens.

Filmed in the Highlands of Scotland, it's a great advertisement for the beautiful landscape up there and, surprisingly, the weather appeared to be kind during the shoot.

The lodge location is available to hire should you want to experience the wilderness of the Highlands.

Overall, if you have nothing else worth watching this is worth a try, just don't expect a blockbuster.