The Tortured (2010)

An upper-middle-class couple's life is destroyed when their only child is kidnapped and killed. Obsessed with revenge, the couple seizes an opportunity to kidnap the killer.

Director:

Robert Lieberman

Writer:

Marek Posival

Stars:

Erika Christensen, Jesse Metcalfe, Bill Lippincott

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Erika Christensen	...	Elise Landry
Jesse Metcalfe	...	Craig Landry
Bill Lippincott	...	Galligan
Bill Moseley	...	John Kozlowski
Fulvio Cecere	...	Detective Berger
Thomas Greenwood	...	Ben Landry
Stephen Park	...	Man in condo
Samantha Gutstadt	...	Woman in Condo
Zak Santiago	...	Younger Cop
Alfonso Quijada	...	Clerk
John R. Taylor	...	Pastor (as John Taylor)
Viv Leacock	...	Officer Patterson
Darryl Scheelar	...	Officer Alvarez
Peter Abrams	...	Judge Stanley
Paul Herbert	...	Baliff

Storyline

In Rutland Country, the six year-old Benjamin Michael Landry is kidnapped by a psychopath in the lawn of his house. His father Craig Landry unsuccessfully runs after the truck but the abductor escapes. Sooner the police discovers that John Kozlowski had abducted and killed Benjamin. When the criminal is sentenced to 25 years in prison only, Benjamin's mother Elise Landry presses her husband to kidnap John and torture him. Craig is a doctor and knows exactly how to inflict pain to the psychopath. They succeed to kidnap John from the prison transport, but Craig has an accident and John is hurt. The couple tortures the man until they find the truth about their victim.

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Plot Keywords:

torture | revenge | kidnapping | two word title | child murder | 

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Taglines:

The only way to ease the pain is to inflict some.

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sadistic violence and torture, language and a scene of sexuality

Details

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 August 2012 (Poland)

Also Known As:

Tortured

Filming Locations:

Langley, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$8,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twisted Pictures, LightTower Entertainment, MP Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

79 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

The action is supposed to take place in Vermont. The gas station is Esso and the price posted is in liter. This is clearly shot in Canada as in Vermont, it would have been a Exxon station and a price per gallon.

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Soundtracks

"Hush Little Baby"
Traditional
Arranged by Jeff Rona & Nathan Fox
Performed by Jake Knox and The Boys
Silkscreen Music, ASCAP

User Reviews

It's the audience that suffers.

Craig and Elise Landry (Jesse Metcalfe and Erika Christensen) have their world torn apart when John Kozlowski (Bill Moseley), a drooling psychopath with deep-seated parent issues and an unrivalled collection of disturbing curios in his basement, abducts and murders their six year old son. When the killer is caught and brought to trial, but only receives a 25 year jail sentence for his heinous crime, the distraught couple decide to take the law into their own hands and exact a far more fitting punishment.

The Tortured is, as the title suggests, yet another in the recent wave of horror films that have (un)popularly been dubbed 'torture porn'; however, rather than try to make the viewer turn away in disgust at gory atrocities inflicted upon innocent victims, as is usually the case with this sub-genre, the intention here is to appeal to the audience's most primal emotions, fulfilling a basic desire for sweet justice by depicting a twisted piece of human garbage on the receiving end of some serious pain and humiliation for a change.

This twist on an already well-worn theme might have worked if it wasn't for an unnecessary and totally unbelievable twist at the end which robs the viewer of any real satisfaction. Add the fact that the violence perpetrated is far from stomach churning (the gore is most unimpressive with the yuckiest scene turning out to be a dream) and the plot requires major suspension of disbelief (for example, one is expected to believe that, after a van has somersaulted off a bridge, sailed through the air, and crashed face-down onto some jagged rocks, those inside have all miraculously survived death), and what you have is a bland and instantly forgettable effort, another nail in the coffin for a horror trend that should have been buried long ago.