Faces do Medo: Bem Vindo a Família

Newlyweds Cory and Sarah Morgan take Cory's 7-year old son Liam up to the country for some much needed family time. When it appears as if Liam has run away, psychological suspense becomes straight-out horror, as Sarah and Cory must now confront a sadistic cult-like family who have been hiding in the house all along and have taken Liam for themselves.

Some horror fans will watch anything and give this a try. Some are more discriminating and might give it a chance because it stars Katharine Isabelle. That latter reason is a good one, and bumps this film up from bad to alright.

There are some cheesy lines about the kid who will not accept his new stepmother. In such situations, these conversations probably happen and they probably sound stupid trying to reason with a kid, but they sound out of place here...

There are some good things: there is nice coloration on the cinematography, giving it a sort of sepia-influenced creepiness. And you cannot deny the interesting villains; the animal mask theme seems to be in vogue for the 2010s... these are some of the better masks out there, probably better than the ones from "You're Next".

Torment is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the dullest films I have ever seen, and I have seen some rubbish in my time.

The plot follows a young family as they go on holiday to their house in the middle of the woods and then get tormented by some creepy rednecks. Not the most original plot ever devised, but that is the least of this film's problems.

The most egregious problem is that, for a horror film, it completely fails to be scary in any shape or form (which is kind of missing the point somewhat). But there is more, aside from the usual obvious flaws in logic that befalls poorly made horror films. It is a Herculean task to find anything likable in most of the main characters; the person playing Cory has little to no charisma, and the child is some spoilt a*****e. There is no rhyme or reason for the creepy rednecks torturing the yuppie heroes, apart from just being mentally ill, and any attempt to give them some kind of motive makes no sense. The ending is rather stupid, and one can easily see it coming. I could write a better plot than the people who wrote this abomination.

There is one reason why I am giving this film 2 stars rather than a rock bottom 1 star, and that is Katharine Isabelle. She is the only decent actor in this mess, but even so, she is still nothing spectacular (to be fair though, it would be impossible for Marlon Brando, Peter O'Toole or Laurence Olivier to look good in Torment). There was another thing I found rather worrying about Isabelle's performance. I do think that she is talented; films like Ginger Snaps and American Mary clearly show this. However, she does seem to be wasting her time and efforts starring in rubbish like this. Katharine Isabelle is in serious danger of having a career similar to Nicolas Cage, in that for every one great film you have about 5 or 6 god- awful ones.

All in all, Torment is a terrible horror film that is conspicuously lacking in horror, and I suggest that you stay away from this like the plague.

This movie is definitely not terrible. It's not as classy as The Strangers or as fun as some other recent home invasion flix but, I honestly thought it was good enough to watch twice. Katharine Isabelle always demands my attention and this time I think the film worked for her. At the very least the film adds positively to her standing as one of our favorite new age scream queens.. The film is shot well, the acting's not terrible, there's some genuine suspense here and a fairly scary bad guy with a little twist or two along the way. As an avid horror fan who wades through piles of crappy movie weekly looking for the hidden gems, I'd say this film will please most genre fans. I don't know just good a sequel would be though. Might have to steer clear of that one...lol.

After the death of his beloved wife, the widower Cory Morgan (Robin Dunne) marries Sarah Morgan (Katharine Isabelle) and they travel on vacation to an isolated house with his son Liam Morgan (Peter DaCunha). Cory expects that the resented Liam, who misses his mother, gets close Sarah along the next days. On the arrival, they discover that intruders have lived in the house and they summon the local Sheriff Hawkings (Stephen McHattie) calms them down telling that the strangers that have broken in have gone. During the night, Liam disappears and soon they witness Hawkings tied up to the steering wheel of his car. When the car explodes, they realize that they are under attack of sadistic killers and they need to fight back to survive.

"Torment" is a stupid slasher with a lame story, excessive use of clichés and poor development of the characters. The motive for the killing of the insane family is shallow and senseless. The brain washing in the teenager Mary Bronson (Amy Forsyth) is unexplainable and hard to believe. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Faces do Medo: Bem Vindo a Família" ("Faces of the Fear: Welcome to the Family")

It seems like horror movies these days fall into 3 categories: good or excellent (less than 5% of all horror movies per year); "I've seen worse" (30% of all horror movies per year); and utter garbage (the remaining 60-plus% per year). This is one of those "I've seen worse".

The entire movie is a mishmash of different horror movie elements you've seen in plenty of horror movies before:

1. deranged redneck family. 2. unsuspecting yuppies are stuck in a rural area with no cell phone reception. 3. decent actors wasted on a terrible script and poorly developed characters (although the kid was annoying). 4. long torture scenes where the victims are bound and gagged. 5. "BOOM!" jump scares whenever we see a shadow. 6. the heroine is pinned down by the villain but then finds a conveniently placed weapon nearby to defend herself with. 7. despite the fact that she's been through a physically trying ordeal through mud, blood, and grime, the heroine's hair, makeup, and nails are great. 8. the victims will knock the killer out but never make sure the killer is dead.

I was just shaking my head throughout the entire movie, constantly saying, "Wow...this is reeeeaaally generic...at best...". It's never a good sign when I start fiddling with my phone out of boredom. But I was doing that throughout the movie. Before I knew it, the movie was virtually over and everything seemed to be okay. Then the lame twist ending came around and I thought, "Well, unnecessary and mediocre twist endings are the norm these days. So why am I not shocked by this." I think the only interesting thing were the villains' masks. Why were they wearing them? I understand they wanted to keep their I.D.s a secret, but they could have chosen better masks. The masks are stuffy and hard to see through. In real life, any killer wearing those masks would have ripped them off in frustration.

All in all, this is a forgettable movie for someone looking to kill time. After watching it you'll think, "Well, I didn't hate the movie. But I have no desire whatsoever to watch it again."