Captivity

I'm a fan of the Saw series, and Hostel (not of Hostel 2). I enjoy these types of movies and I'm only a tad ashamed. Call me a dumb, violence seeking goon but these movies are entertaining.

What's this got to do with Captivity? Well, nothing really. I was drawn to this movie because I thought it was going to be another retelling of this sick sub-genre of horror that I do so love. I was sadly disappointed because this absolutely is not a "torture porn" movie. It would have been much more honest of the production company, After Dark Films, to say it was a thriller with slight torture porn inklings (very slight).

Maybe, the folks at After Dark didn't actually see the movie. What I saw was psychological in nature and dealt much more with assaults on the mind of those captive than it did with actual assaults on the bodies of those captive. Yes, there is some blood and some nasty gore but nothing like Saw or Hostel or even Touristas.

Understand that if you don't like Saw, Hostel etc., then this is a good choice for a horror/thriller to go see this weekend.

Now that that's out of the way I'll just say: It's not a great movie but adequate. A solid B-movie endeavor. Fun, kind of stupid at times, pretty good acting by the luscious Elisha Cuthbert (for the guys-your girlfriends might get jealous) and the director, Roland Joffe (best known for The Mission, The Killing Fields), imbued the entire film with a look that worked very well to be creepy and ominous. It moves fairly quickly, lags a bit in the middle and ends with a slightly predictable twist but really you don't care at that point because, surprise, you've been entertained. Well, at least I was even though my hunger for gore was only slightly abated.

B-

'Torture porn' is one of the most tedious trends to happen in horror for years, but I do love me a bit of Elisha Cuthbert, so into the player went Captivity, another supposedly 'brutal' and 'gruelling' entry in this redundant sub-genre distributed by the usual culprits, Lionsgate Films.

The beautiful, pillow-chested star of TV's 24 plays Jennifer Tree, a successful young model who winds up imprisoned in a grimy, booby-trapped dungeon after her drink is spiked at a nightclub. There she is put through a series of terrifying and disgusting ordeals, before meeting and falling for fellow prisoner Gary, whose suffering helps her find the strength to fight back against their tormentor.

Captivity, from once respected director Roland Joffé, is clearly intended to outdo the Hostels and Saws in terms of shock horror and depravity, and to its credit, it is extremely revolting at times, even managing to make me gag during one scene involving body parts and a food blender; however, once the film leaves familiar torture territory and attempts to introduce a few plot twists, it completely falls apart due to its sheer predictability.

Most viewers should be able to guess what is coming way before it happens, and the film's major revelation is so bloody obvious its hard to believe that even a vacuous, image-obsessed model like Jennifer would be surprised by it (and it's even harder to believe that such a hackneyed script came from seasoned horror veteran Larry Cohen).

As the end credits rolled, I noticed that this film was produced with the help of director Courtney Solomon, the 'genius' responsible for such garbage as Dungeons and Dragons and An American Haunting; seems like he's no longer content to just direct crap films—now he assists others with the making of them too!

You see I saw another movie yesterday (9 July 07) about being trapped in a room which may have been to the detriment of Captivity. While in general the idea was good there was something not quite thrilling enough. Captivity borrowed from a smattering of other movies without really living up to any of them.

It was nice to see Elisha doing something different, and as always pleasant enough to see her in a film.. but I felt little empathy for her character or indeed, that of her companion.

Not psychological enough to be another Silence of the Lambs or 1408, and not horror / gore enough to be another Saw, Cube or Hostel.

I had pretty low expectations for this, so when it turned out to be not that bad (almost, dare i say, pretty... good?) I left the theater extremely enthusiastic. It delivers, believe it or not, a complete, if not well-rounded story. Here it is, in a sentence: Jennifer Tree is a beautiful young fashion model getting things she doesn't deserve and deciding she needs to get the hell out. Elisha Cuthbert plays the lead, and she looks phenomenal. Even while she is being held captive, her "damsel in distress" act makes great cinema. Always nice to see a girl that's been passed off as a dumb blond get up and kick some ass. I know there are people that feel otherwise about this movie but hey- I liked it! So there!

Captivity is a movie that had me waiting in suspense. This movie had a good fright around every corner and was nothing that I saw before. I really enjoyed the way the film was made and thought that the attention to the billboards and everything really distracts from the gore of the movie. The Mpaa was right in asking them to bring down the billboards, but still this movie has it all. I heard they are doing reshoots but I think this movie is fine without them. I think that the actors in this one did excellent and I can't believe that they are saying that the movie is going through rating trouble. For true horror fans and movie fans alike , it will be wrong to not give it a rating cause then less people will watch it.