The Tortured

The Tortured

Teaser poster
Directed by Robert Lieberman
Produced by Mark Burg
Oren Koules
Carl Mazzocone
Marek Posival
Written by Marek Posival
Starring Chelah Horsdal
Jesse Metcalfe
Erika Christensen
Bill Moseley
Music by Jeff Rona
Cinematography Peter F. Woeste
Edited by Rye Dahlman
Production
company
LightTower Entertainment
Twisted Light Productions
Twisted Pictures
Distributed by VVS Films
Release dates
  • 28 August 2010 (Film4 FrightFest)
Country Canada
United States
Language English

The Tortured is a 2010 mystery horror-thriller film directed by Robert Lieberman and written by Marek Posival.[1]

Plot

The film tells the story of a couple, Elise Landry (Erika Christensen) and her husband Craig Landry (Jesse Metcalfe), whose life is broken when a serial killer kidnaps, tortures and kills their only son.

The wife blames her husband, but they both understand each other's pain. The trial goes on for the murder of their son and the killer gets 25 years to life. The couple is not satisfied with the verdict. Elise tells Craig to get her a gun so that she can kill the serial killer, but Craig does not agree to it. Elise leaves the house and Craig tries to kill himself while he is alone at home. Later he meets Elise to say that just killing him will not be enough. They make a plan to kidnap him. Craig gets medicines from his workplace and emergency aid kit from an ambulance. They keep an eye on the serial killer when he is taken out of the jail into a police van. Craig and Elise follow them and wait for the police van to stop at a point.

The police stops to get some coffee. Craig distracts them while Elise is able to spike their coffees. After some time, the police pulls over and Craig is successful in taking away the van with the prisoner. In confusion and panic, Craig hits the van and it rolls over the bridge. Elise is calm to see Craig is all right and the prisoner still alive. Elisa receives a call from the detective informing that the serial killer had taken the police van and had escaped. She is able to sound normal to avoid any doubts.

They take him to their basement and chain him just like he did to their son. They come and torture him in every way they could think of but then have to deal with the stress of torturing him. They pull themselves together and continue torturing him thinking of their son. However, it is known later that they had abducted, tortured and killed the wrong convict. The van had two convicts, one for the crime of tax evasion and other for the serial murder. The serial killer had escaped while the other convict was tortured by the couple.

Wrinkle: At the end, their torture victim writes an odd note for a tax evader.

Cast

Production

The Twisted Pictures film features Erika Christensen, Bill Moseley, and Jesse Metcalfe in the leads.[2] It is based on the screenplay, "Act of Redress", by Czech screenwriter, Marek Posival, and was directed by Rob Lieberman.[3]

The scenes involving the fictional "Paz Fuels" truck stop were shot in Langley, British Columbia, while the others scenes were filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia.[4] Mark Burg, Oren Koules, Carl Mazzocone and Marek Posival produced the film for Twisted Light Productions.[5] Minor roles are played by Zak Santiago, Lynn Colliar, Chelah Horsdal, and Fulvio Cecere. The role of Kozlowski was to originally be played by Charlie Sheen, but Sheen left the project on 30 June 2008.[6]

Soundtrack

The multi-instrumentalist Jeff Rona composed the score.[7]

Release

Eclectic Film Sales released the film on 8 November 2009 over the American Film Market.[8] It had its premiere as part of the 2010 FrightFest.[9] The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on 18 October 2010. In 2012, it was released limitedly in theaters and on VOD in the US.

Critical reception

The Tortured received negative reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 6% approval rating, based on 17 reviews.[10] On Metacritic, the film also has a score of 9 out of 100, based on 8 reviews.[11] Rex Reed of The New York Observer wrote that the film is "unconvincingly written" and "awkwardly directed".[12] Elizabeth Weitzman of New York City's Daily News wrote, "There’s really nothing here to recommend, other than bravely stalwart performances from the leads. It is bluntly written, poorly shot and edited, and cruel without being clever."[13]

Notes

  1. ↑ Miska, Brad (3 April 2009). "BDTV: First Look at Twisted Pictures’ ‘The Tortured’!". Bloody Disgusting. BLOODY DISGUSTING LLC. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  2. ↑ Miska, Brad (8 November 2009). "AFM ’09: Promo Trailer for Twisted Pictures’ ‘The Tortured’!". Bloody Disgusting. BLOODY DISGUSTING LLC. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  3. ↑ Miska, Brad (4 November 2009). "AFM '09: Early Artwork Teased for 'The Tortured'". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  4. ↑ Miska, Brad (15 December 2008). "Bloody Disgusting TV Episode 12 – On the Set of 'The Tortured'". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  5. ↑ Turek, Ryan (15 October 2009). "Where is Twisted Pictures' Tortured?". Shock till You Drop. Evolve Media Corp. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  6. ↑ Miska, Brad (30 June 2008). "Sheen Out, Christensen In For Untitled Twisted Pictures Project". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  7. ↑ "Twisted Pictures Project Is '"Tortured"". Oh My Gore!. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  8. ↑ Turek, Ryan (8 November 2009). "A Second Promo Trailer for The Tortured". Shock Till You Drop. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  9. ↑ "FrightFest '10: Moseley On the Run In New 'The Tortured' Image". BloodyDisgusting. 4 July 2010. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  10. ↑ "The Tortured". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  11. ↑ "The Tortured". Metacritic. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  12. ↑ Reed, Rex (13 June 2012). "The Tortured Leaves Audience Past Pain Threshold". The New York Observer. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
  13. ↑ Weitzman, Elizabeth (14 June 2012). "Movie Review: 'The Tortured'". Daily News. Retrieved 8 September 2012.

External links