Does it still count as a home invasion movie if the owners have been away from the house for like six months and people have just been squatting there? I mean, it's still a violation of privacy and all that good stuff... but I figure it's like finding a bunch of masked killers in a rental vacation home or something. It just doesn't have the same oompf as someone invading your current living space, you know?
Anyways, Torment is about newlyweds Cory & Sarah, and Cory's son Liam. Cory's mom is no longer around - you assume she died, but it's never explicitly mentioned. Anyways all is not well with their family dynamics - Liam is all pissed off that Sarah is trying to take his mom's place. But they are hoping a trip to their "cabin" will help things. (The cabin is actually a really nice house, which Sarah mentions right away - ingratiating herself to me immediately.) But unless they are able to bond over being kidnapped and tortured by a masked family of lunatic squatters, the vacation probably isn't going to help much.
Torment is pretty decently put together and well paced - you don't end up waiting too long for things to happen. And the most disturbing thing in the film (to me at least) is early on when Cory discovers that someone has been in their house - sleeping in their beds and making a general mess. It's just creepy, you know? The cops say that it's probably just teenagers breaking in to unwatched houses to party. But we know better (and besides, that'd be a pretty shitty horror movie). Little Liam gets snatched about half an hour in, and it doesn't take long for Cory and Sarah to get split up - and then tied up - by their masked captors.
You see, family is a big theme in Torment. The insane squatters are sort of a makeshift family - dad kidnaps Cory and shocks him with a car battery, mom ties up Sarah and threatens her with a meat cleaver, while their son goads them on... it may be evil, but at least they are doing things together! And they have dastardly plans for Liam - perhaps adding him to their demented little clan? I'm not sure what point Torment is trying to get at re: family, unless it's "insane people need a family too." But at least it is noteworthy.
In fact, it feels a little *too* family based at times - one of the guys is about to kill Liam, but will spare him if Cory just says "son - I don't love you anymore." It's played up as being a far worse fate than any of the physical torture Cory has endured. Between Sarah as the damsel in distress (early on) and the focus on the nuclear families, Torment toes the line of being a little too conservative at times. (To be fair, it bucks that trend somewhat towards the end.) But it still kind of tips its hand and lets you make an educated guess about who makes it to the end of the film.
Despite a pretty torture-porny premise, the horror elements of Tormented are surprisingly relaxed. I mean, there are a couple of scenes of torture (electrocution... and maybe that's it?), but most of the horror comes from the threat of violence rather than the act itself. And I'll admit, there is more energy in seeing an opened gardening shear hovering around a person's neck than there is in actually seeing the deed happen. There is some psychological tormenting going on as well (making Corey think his son is dead), but for a film called Tormented it's just not as demented as I was expecting.
I think the visual language of the film works - there are shots in the film that foreshadow coming events nicely, but aren't super obvious. Plus, the house looks good, and you get a decent feeling for the physical space of it. But unfortunately, there isn't a lot of tension to the proceedings. I don't know if it's because of the kid (you figure that nothing bad is going to happen to him) or if you just don't care much for the characters, good or bad. The maniacs don't really ever explain where they come from or why they are doing their crazy-person stuff, so there isn't much to them either. Plus, I really had to take issue with the masks they wear - they cut off stuffed animal heads and wear them. They look creepy but are extremely unpractical, as there is no way you could see anything with them on. And there is really no reason for them even wear them - their plan is to kill everyone anyways. So why would they need to wear a mask?
Generally speaking, the acting is fine - aside from the main bad guy sounding like a recurring character on a sketch comedy show, the performances are okay. The one exception is Katharine Isabelle as Sarah. She was the highlight of American Mary, and is once again really good here. She gets to stretch her dramatic muscles a little as the dejected/rejected stepmom, and manages to convey both fear but also a strong will when she is under attack. It helps that she gets a pretty big assist from the script - she gets injured early on and seems destined for a passive role, but ends up being way more of a badass than you expect.
And... a dog!
Name: Duke
Breed: German Shepard
Function: To bark at the bad guys. And to make it clear that these are *really* bad guys.
Fate: Dead before the credits roll. Presumably stabbed with gardening shears (it happens offscreen, thankfully). You do run across his decomposed body later in the film though. On the plus side, this lets you know how much time has passed since the first scene.
Overall, there isn't a lot to dislike about Torment, but there isn't a heck of a lot to get excited about either. It's just sort of middle of the road - and it doesn't feel as extreme as it wants to be. If asked, I'd just kind of shrug my shoulders, but ultimately:
I would not recommend this film.
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