The Tortured

The movies of 2010 still live
jonbly
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The Tortured

Post by jonbly »

Well made, with a reasonably interesting moral question for people to pick over.

The ending confused a number of people jonbly spoke to (ie the identity issue)... the overall conclusion is that they convinced their (genuinely) amnesiac tax evader that he really was a monster... and he picked the name up from their conversation. This explains his actions at the end.

7/10
world_of_skin
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Re: The Tortured

Post by world_of_skin »

Completely, utterly and totally hated this film. Can't elaborate too much at the moment as writing this on a mobile but, yeah, in my opinion the only ones being tortured were us, the audience, and not in a cool way!

I think this was far too slick and polished for this sort of subject matter - I think it would work much better if it were gritty and more real, this was too contrived and hollywood. I didn't buy the characters and, as a result, didn't care about their situation.

The Horseman got it right in terms of vengeance for a dead child - surely this is the sort of film where you want to taste the blood?

Cherry Tree Lane had the violence right too - bludgeoning the guy repeatedly then just losing it and going at his face with his fists. In this film, how could the parents be that restrained and controlled and so distanced from the guy and what they were doing to him? They hid behind their syringes and cigarettes and the like.. Where was the primal rageful contact? He destroyed your flesh and blood (or so they thought), so destroy his, don't pussyfoot around, if you're going to make a film about that sort of subject matter, then just fucking go for it or what's the point??
"But what if one of you is the monster?"
"Monster? We're *British*, you know..."
looneygooner
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Re: The Tortured

Post by looneygooner »

For me best film of the day, the funny thing was as I was coming out of the cinema, everyone was raving on about the torture scenes,I didn't hear one bit of sympathy for the poor bastard who evaded his tax, and mine is up to date at the moment, I found that amusing and strangely comforting. Revenge is blind
world_of_skin
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Re: The Tortured

Post by world_of_skin »

Torture scenes felt ridiculously softcore to me. Not at all impressed!
"But what if one of you is the monster?"
"Monster? We're *British*, you know..."
jonbly
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Re: The Tortured

Post by jonbly »

world_of_skin wrote:In this film, how could the parents be that restrained and controlled and so distanced from the guy and what they were doing to him?
Well, one difference with Cherry Tree Lane would be the adrenaline factor... in this film they've been unable to do anything for a couple of months and that's changed the nature of their reaction.
world_of_skin
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Re: The Tortured

Post by world_of_skin »

Yep, hence my Horseman comparison... He had to pursue too.

Also, in The Tortured, when the parents were torturing him to try and get him to say the kid's name, and he finally did, which they thought proved guilt (or, rather, rememberance) - surely that should have been the catalyst for a harsher, more violent, adrenaline-fuelled reaction? Instead the woman was just smug about it to her husband!
"But what if one of you is the monster?"
"Monster? We're *British*, you know..."
afabear
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Re: The Tortured

Post by afabear »

i really liked this one, it took itself seriously and i didnt see the end coming a mile away, which was a relief. some of the cruelty on display was pretty harsh stuff. ive got a thing about toe torture, i just cant handle it at all. and man did that guy have a bad few days.
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Re: The Tortured

Post by Lyns »

I thought this film was absolutely diabolical, I agree with world_of_skin that it was far too slick and polished to portray the grit of the subject matter and the violence involved. The casting was truly awful, the lead actors were totally unbelievable and the way they kept changing their mind about what they were doing but then being okay with it a split second later was very irritating. Along with Isle of Dogs and Damned by Dawn, worst films of the festival.
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Re: The Tortured

Post by Grindhouse »

This was Law abiding Citizen 2 it wasnt very good, really b movie hotch potch that a few years back would have been part of the lionsgate free film days.
you would watch this on dvd & not go to the cinema to see it,but at least next year we may well end up with it in our goody bags.
hmmm nice :wink:
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Re: The Tortured

Post by The Soapmaker »

jonbly wrote:Well made, with a reasonably interesting moral question for people to pick over.
They left it for us to pick over because the film itself completely avoided the question.

Revenge movies seemed to be the main theme of this year's FrightFest. In every other case, the act of revenge was either "heat of the moment" (Cherry Tree Lane) or carried out by someone temporarily or permanently unhinged (I Spit..., Bedevilled, Red White & Blue). Here we're supposed to believe that a pair of yuppies can just decide to cold-bloodedly torture a man to death with no qualms at all (apart from an occasional worried twitch of Jesse Metcalfe's neatly-plucked brows).

How the hell did they work out when the killer was being transferred to another prison? How the hell did they fail to see his doppelganger being loaded in the van? The "twist" was ridiculous and doesn't even work because as the film ends our "heroes" don't know they've got the wrong man.

By far the worst film of the weekend, unless there was something even more shite on the Discovery Screen or in the late-nighters (which is entirely possible with Danny Dyer in the mix...).
Heiko
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Re: The Tortured

Post by Heiko »

Hooray for another example of 'torture sells!'

This movie... oh brother... how bad a script are you will to accept as a small screen actor to see your face on the big screen?

Okay, we have the revenging couple... who are apparently such superduper jail springers that the guards don't stand a chance...
it's not like we are talking a doc and a real estate agent, no, we are talking Mr & Mrs Prime Crime...

So, having 'kidnapped' the baddie without a glitch (only a small crash) they are faving fun torturing the guy and yes, of course we get an extra dose of torture via dreaming... blah...

Amnesia, the big question of 'is it morally acceptable to punish someone who can't remember what he has done'... blah... I don't think any parent whose kid was killed by a human beast will be willing to show forgiveness 'because the guy doesn't remember'...

and strangely enough: the 'wrong' guy does actually know the kid's name?! Oh, of course, the 'right' guy told him in the van that he had killed a kid called Benjamin...

Blah... blup... guy escapes, both cops and parents are hunting someone, cops get the right guy, parents get their guy - who redeems his tax crime by taking the blame for killing the kid on him...

BULL!

And yes, in the end the writer dropped the ball by not showing what is happening when the couple finds out that the guy they drove to sucide is actually only guilty of commiting a rather 'gentlemanly' crime...

In short: movie was a complete waste of my time!
splittter
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Re: The Tortured

Post by splittter »

This film was awful, but at least the last 40 mins were so bad as to be hilarious. Lots of ridiculous lines, my favourites were "I've researched torture a lot ... specifically for this occasion" & "Think of the worst pain imaginable ... it'll be worse than that" ... just dreadful. As others have said seemed way too slick, cheesy & mainstream a film to be at FF ... if it wasn't for the occasionally manky torture stuff this could have been a TV movie. I really hope it got shown as a favour to some distributors for giving the guys another far far better movie.
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Re: The Tortured

Post by Wolfshade »

this was utter poo, one of the worst of the weekend, standard glossy hollywood tripe - slick and totally vacuous.

The "OMG WRONG GUY" twist was so stupid it was untrue, are we really supposed to believe that when he hijacked the van he didn't notice there was an identicle looking guy in the back, who knows the name of the son, but can't remember enough to prove that it wasn't actually him?!
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Re: The Tortured

Post by halloweengirl »

I'm not sure how I feel about this film. Immediately after watching it I thought it was far too slick and mainstream and could see it doing okay on general release (like last year's Strangers or whenever it was) but now, after seeing the rest of the films and having a mull, I don't think it was out of place in the line up.
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Re: The Tortured

Post by AnotherSchmuck »

Award for worst dialogue of the weekend....Perhaps...

Award for worst Child actor of the weekend...Definitely.

Award for worst casting of the weekend...Spot on!
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