Vile (2011)

I don't remember seeing (or hearing about) this one when it was released originally - but feel like I've seen it already because, well, we've all seen these sort of movies.

A group of kids on some sort of road trip (one of the most prone groups next to a group of kids walking around with camera gear) pick up a beautiful hitch hiker... yeah, you all know what happens next.

They wake up in a room with some other scared people and what follows is their bid to escape alive - the only way they can do this, is by inflicting enough pain on each other to fill up these bottles that are inserted into the back of their heads.

So we have a torture flick with a slight twist as although the process is being carried out by an unseen enemy the pain is inflicted by the victims.

So for a torture movie it does its job, I would imagine and hope that there is an uncut version somewhere as the version I saw seemed to cut away from the action a lot, which is really what a torture film should be all about. That's not to say that we don't get our fair share of fingernail pulling and teeth extracting along with several other toe-curling moments for you to clench your buttocks to.

Although as far as realism goes you may find yourself shouting at the screen - their pain seems to vanish as soon as it is inflicted and they walk around almost with zero symptoms afterwards. Even a guy with a broken collar bone manages to lift someone up with only a grit of his teeth to indicate the pain.

The plot has a few unsurprising twists along the way, the cast feels like it is made up of "group of people that all must die or be maimed" usual suspect stereotypes, but honestly who cares as it's all about the pain and torture.

Wrongs are made righted with vengeance and all in all this is not a bad little flick, even if it wouldn't stand out in it's genre.

6/10 Masks

Release date: August 26, 2011 (United Kingdom)
Director: Taylor Sheridan
Running time: 1h 28m
Initial DVD release: December 16, 2012 (Japan)
Screenplay: Eric Jay Beck, Rob Kowsaluk