Directed by Robert Lieberman, The Tortured follows Craig (Jesse Metcalfe) and Elisa Landry (Erika Christensen), a happily married couple whose lives are destroyed due to their son being kidnapped and brutally murdered. When the murderer manages to avoid life in prison through a plea bargain, the Landry’s decide that a minimum of 10 years isn’t enough for this disgusting asshole. While the prisoner is being transported, the two hijack the van and bring the killer to an abandoned home where they set up a torture shop in the basement. Over the next few days unexpected things happen as the couple continues to torture the man and begin to question themselves in the process.
As most horror fans will agree, we are very open to films that take chances, but when they fail we are also easily able to point out how ridiculous the film can be and rip it to shreds. Horror fans brace yourself, because The Tortured falls into the latter category.
From the first few minutes of the film you could tell you were in for a very B rated experience so my cynical guard dropped considerably. The movie had cheesy dialogue, bad acting, a mother who didn’t seem to shed tears when crying over her dead boy and the rest of the B rated horror works.
At only 81 minutes, the film moves rather briskly making sure you understand how tortured the parents are and how their relationship has been affected from the loss of their son. But eventually we transition from what seems like a thriller to a sadistic torture flick and watch some gory content as the parents exact slow revenge on their son’s killer.
SPOILER The movie does have a twist that I initially thought was good, but after thinking about it for a few minutes I realized how stupid it was and how it ruined everything I had just watched. At the end you find out that the guy they are torturing is the wrong prisoner, there were two in the van that they hijacked but when it crashed they only saw one. They also noticed only one inmate getting into the van when they were spying on the prison (seriously). Now either my view on revenge is skewed or these might be the du
mbest horror characters ever. When someone kills your son and you’ve seen his face close-up that’s imprinted in your mind, especially if you want to kill the son of a bitch. So tell me, how the hell do you miss two prisoners coming out of a prison or, more importantly, how do you not realize you have the wrong guy when you’re staring him straight in the eye? That’s like a nerd forgetting the face of a bully that gave him hell for seven years in school, wtf Lieberman. END FRUSTRATING SPOILER
Though it deserves to be continually bashed, I give the film a little credit because it did a good job showing how tortured the parents were after knowing that their child had been found and killed. The two go back and forth blaming each other even thought they know it’s neither of their faults. Though I wasn’t a fan of the happy flashbacks with their child cut into moments of reflection, it made sense but was overused.
Overall, The Tortured is a sub-par horror film that doesn’t offer up anything new to the genre and manages to kill all its credibility in the final 10 minutes. It’s got characters you don’t care about, annoying editing, a bad script and an ending that will make you want to punch a puppy (and no one ever wants to punch puppy).
Rating: It delivers on its name but not much else (3.5/10)
The Tortured will be available on VOD on May 11th and will hit NY theaters on June 15th thanks to IFC.
21 Comments
Erin
I agree with you with everything except Jesse Metcalfe and Ericka Christensen. They did a decent job considering the circumstances. Bad endings are the absolute worst! Why would the ‘tax-evader’ write a suicide note confessing to something he didn’t even do???? Ugh, I just watched this and it is probably one of the worst endings in thriller/horror history. Ha, punching a puppy, bad, very bad.
matrix83
He wanted to ease the parents pain cause he knew if they found out the truth it would have more than likely made them kill themselves! That shit would fuck them up!
Conor
I think it’s more likely the crash really did cause memory loss and the couple’s constant abuse led him to truly believe he WAS the kidnapper.
Murkie
How did he know the name of the child?
Megalodon.
Because he could hear them around the house over the few days of his torture calling their child “Benjamin”, like “He killed Benjamin” and all that, and when they were suffocating him with the gas mask she said the child’s name again, so when they were breaking his bones in the vice he shouted the name he had heard them saying just to make them stop the torture.
Maggie Díaz
They repeatedly said Benjamins name around him…
indyo
toward the end it says kozlowski has yet to be found meaning he was the man that was tortured(the father buried him) which explains why he knew benjamins name and why he wrote that letter. an innocent man would have pleaded his innocence and told the couple of the other prisoner in the van. galligan was found just in time to save the couple from being discovered torturing the man the did kill their child. im pretty sure that was what happened after viewing the last scenes over. although it is very confusing and unclear as to what the movie was attempting to convey to the viewer
Maggie Díaz
Obviously this guy really did lose his memory when the van crashed and he hit his head hard and was knocked unconscious. And based on all the torturing they did to him and them repeating their sons name, he came to believe that he had in fact murdered their son. Therefore he confessed to a crime he didn’t commit because he actually believed that he did do it.
emmy
He had amnesia from the crash and didn’t remember anything so all he could do was believe what the parents were telling him …that he murdered their son
Kano
The tax guy had a memory loss and their torture and accusations made him believe he did the crime though he didn’t do it. He committed suicide because he couldn’t bare the torture anymore
Nikki Trivette
I think this COULD have been a halfway decent movie, had they given more thought to the plot. I dit’n find the acting to be all THAT bad, but the storyline definitely needed some work…very confusing ending!
rick
Why did that guy not say he was the wrong person when they were talking? WTF. All I can assume is he did have amnesia and just guessed the name Ben. Weak
Ang
While they were suffocating him, they said benjamin, and even if he said he was the wrong person, i don’t think they would have believe him.
Megalodon.
well he heard them refer to the child as “Benjamin” previously, that’s why they show a “flashback” at the end where the mother was saying “He killed Benjamin” and the guy in the basement could hear her say it - that’s how he knew. But yeah, it was still a somewhat confusing ending and I can see why people were thrown off. It was a good IDEA, just not well-executed.
Amy Gray Boswell
I can’t figure out if it was the wrong person or not…. they both looked so much alike… I wish there was somewhere to find out… I can’t imagine an innocent man writing that note, but then again, I can’t believe a psycho would write that note so eloquently. hmmmmm…. the torture was way tooo much to handle. But then again, if I was in their shoes, I don’t know what would have been enough.
Megalodon.
I think he had actually DID have memory loss from the accident, but the intense torture he was subjected to made him think “Wow, maybe I WAS a sick child murderer.” That’s why he apologized… he had no recollection of ever harming a child, but after all of their torture, he thought that perhaps he really had and the least he could do was say sorry. That’s why the note sounds like it was written by a human with a conscience, and not like a cold-blooded killer would sound (an actual killer would not have actually written such a note). It’s pretty sad when you look at it that way!
Nikki Trivette
Now I’ve gotta watch it again, just to count the inconsistencies!
turtle turtle
Just saw this… Here’s my take.
First, in the opening credits, there is some subtlety with the title. The first and last letters of the title are alternately dimmed, so the words form two short declarative sentences… The torture. He tortured. The Tortured. There’s the “moral” of the story… We are meant to have compassion for the convict and recognize the fallibility inherent in corporal punishment. The implied backstory is that the killer had been tortured as a child and grew up with a sick compulsion to punish the world for his suffering. He had no compassion for his victims because he was obsessed by the need for vengeance. In his mind, he was justified…. This is mirrored by the parents, who, shattered by their loss are driven to insanity by rage and pain and a willingness to torture and kill to satisfy their need to spread the pain around… In either case, the personhood of the one being tortured is less important than the drive to inflict suffering…
We’re supposed to realize that torture and murder are wrong, no matter what the provocation…
Not saying I agree with this philosophy entirely… I just think that was the author’s intended message.
Adriana
OK hold on though I’m confused I just watch the movie. Do the police know which guy they have in custody because it sounds like they think the child killer is still out there and now the child killer who they actually have and they think is the tax guy is now going to 18 months in prison I’m very confused.
Megan
Why in the hell would they place a man in trouble for tax evasion in a transfer vehicle with a crazy fucking murderer? That’s a crime in of itself. Then, to be honest, I couldn’t tell the difference on if Martha Stewart was being tortured or if it was in fact O.J. Simpson as they looked about the same. I think Erika Christensen is a good actress and I know her husband in this movie from Passions, etc. I think they could have been more detailed in other ways to make the movie more full plot wise. I like reading people’s different takes on the movie. I don’t think that if they were in fact torturing the tax evasion criminal that he would just suck it up and pretend it’s him, who would. I’m sure that he would have said that there was another guy in the vehicle with him whether they’d believe him or not, they’d still second guess the situation. Why would a tax evasion criminal commit suicide out of guilt unless he was the child murderer or became convinced he was?. If the cops did capture the child murderer after the heist, they would have called the couple to let them know of this and then they would have either thought the cops were confused and made them question why or realized what they did and then I think the movie should have ended showing that as that would be quite a twist.
hi
but at the end he saw the the killer in the window