Captivity

Horrorphile

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Horrorphile - September 2008

Captivity

September 23rd 2008 00:43

Great poster, shame about the movie. Very sexy leads, shame about the movie. Intense first fifteen minutes, shame about the remaining seventy or so. Yup, Captivity (2007) is a train wreck, but like all horrific crashes, you can’t help but watch. Is it gonna get worse? Oh yes.

Legendary B-man Larry Cohen, the dodgy schlockmeister who made It’s Alive (1973), Q – The Winged Serpent (1982), and The Stuff (1985), provided the story and co-wrote the screenplay. Roland Joffé, who made a highbrow splash when he helmed The Killing Fields and The Mission, is the director. This lame excuse for a horror movie is a big fall from grace for Joffé. Perhaps it looked good on paper, but I get the impression there were a lot of dirty fingers in this dirty little pie.

Elisha Cuthbert as Jennifer

It’s a Russian-American co-production, so right there we have an unusual mix. The movie takes place somewhere in New York City, but the majority of what goes down is inside an elaborate, but claustrophobic basement complex. All of these scenes were shot in Moscow as the inexplicably huge crew credits reveal. For a movie of such small dimensions (very small cast and few locations, mostly interior) Captivity has a silly amount of people working on it. Too many cooks spoil the broth methinks (After Dark is the production house, the same people who keep bringing us the lame 8 Films To Die For horrorfest ...)

Daniel Gillies as Gary

Jennifer Tree (Elisha Cuthbert) is a lonely fashion model. One night at a charity function with her small dog as her companion she is slipped a mickey finn and abducted. She wakes to find herself in a hotel room with a view of the ocean, but alas, it’s really a digital projection against a stone cold wall. The reality is, she’s trapped in a dark underground makeshift cell, and her abductor remains unknown. All we see is a hooded figure and black-gloved hands (a la Argento).

Jennifer is forced to do some pretty unpleasant things

Jennifer is repeatedly drugged and subjected to horrific torture: being forced to drink a blend of human eyeball, ear, and other suspect extremities, trapped in a tiny glass cell which slowly fills with sand, strapped to a seat and forced to decide between having her own face blown off and pulling a trigger that will blow her dog apart. Her abductor knows everything about her, he has secretly videotaped her, and plays media interviews of her on a monitor which reveal her worst fears, which of course her abductor constructs.

Jennifer and the window into Gary's cell

Jennifer discovers she is not alone in her nightmare. An adjacent cell holds a young man, Gary (Daniel Gillies). They are able to communicate through the glass after scraping the black paint of each side. It seems their abductor is playing with them, allowing them to get close, yet constantly keeping them at the end of their tether.

The two detectives whose sub-plot was almost entirely removed from the finished film

The striking original Spanish poster

Eventually the dynamics shift, and midway through the movie a “twist” is revealed. It’s one of the more absurd narrative ploys I’ve had to endure, especially as the plot thins to the consistency of paint stripper. According to online reports, and in deleted scenes on the DVD, the movie was plagued by negative test screenings. It originally opened in Spain, and was more of a psychological thriller. There was a whole sub-plot concerning the detectives trying to solve the mystery of Jennifer’s disappearance. This was jettisoned (the police only appear near the very end of the movie). Instead the producers decided more gore was needed to raise the “torture porn” bar, as well as a pointless distracting sub-sub-plot which shows the abductor(s) killing their drunken mother filmed as a flashback, yet visually designed as if someone was filming them with a Super-8. Say wha …?!

Jennifer trapped like a rat in a trap

Pruitt Taylor Vince as Ben

Several alternate endings were also filmed, each one pathetic, but two of them utterly ridiculous. Although the producers decided not to go with this thread it’s worth mentioning because they damn well spent money on filming it; having Jennifer become a serial killer as a result of her traumatic experiences crossed the line into plain old Stupidville.

I’m not a fan of the Saw movies, they're just too contrived for their own bad (err, good) and Captivity is certainly of the Saw ilk. However it fancies itself as something much more highbrow, yet loses its way almost immediately. As a vehicle movie for Elisha Cuthbert, all it shows is just how damn gorgeous she is regardless of what light and crap is thrown on and at her. She’s a natural, curvaceous beauty struggling with a grotesque, rake thin concept, forced to fall in love and discover solace in the midst of her nightmare. Say wha..?!

No, please, spare me the horror!

If this movie wore its exploitation inspirations on its sleeve I might let it go, but instead Captivity wants to be taken seriously as some kind of vague socio-political statement on the power of abuse and the abuse of power. The DVD synopsis even goes as far as describing the movie as delving deep into the minds of captor and victim. Pull the other one guys, it’s got bells on it.

Russian-American alternate poster

Here's the trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

5 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Spree

September 23rd 2008 01:24

New York DiaryStar
Los Angeles DiaryStar
San Francisco DiaryStar

I must admit the prospect of ogling Elisha Cuthbert made me watch this.

Comment by Bryn

September 23rd 2008 01:27

Horrorphile

Yeah, pity the abductors didn't get her gear off! Now, that would have pushed the movie rather satisfyingly into real grindhouse territory!

Comment by JohnDoe

September 23rd 2008 01:42

Film & TV on DVD

Totally agree, lame movie that never delivers any thrills. I got very bored, quite quickly.

Comment by Damo

September 23rd 2008 01:56

For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics

Hehehe
I love this review.

The girl looks hot.

Comment by Bryn

September 23rd 2008 03:35

Horrorphile

JD, I remember hearing about this flick ages ago ... Seems it got put through the wringer and came out the other side a lot worse for wear ... Mind you, if it didn't have the gore, it would've bored me to tears. Well, almost, Elisha would probably still keep me watching ...

Damo, um, yes.

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