Penance (2009)

A young mother decides to become a stripper to earn some fast cash, only to find her worst nightmares are about to begin.

Director:

Jake Kennedy

Writer:

Jake Kennedy

Stars:

Marieh Delfino, Jason Connery, Michael Rooker

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Marieh Delfino	...	Amelia
Jason Connery	...	John
Michael Rooker	...	Mann
Graham McTavish	...	Geeves
Alice Amter	...	Eve
Valorie Hubbard	...	Kathy
Lochlyn Munro	...	Jack
Allison Lange	...	Tara
Tony Todd	...	Chauffeur
James Duval	...	Sleazy party guy
Eve Mauro	...	Suzie - Sassy
Sita Young	...	Molly
Katherine Randolph	...	Polly
Garrett Jones	...	Will
Morann Peri	...	Corridor prisoner

Storyline

A story of single mother Amelia, who turns to stripping as a means of making ends meet and winds up the unwilling subject of a grim purification ritual. When her friend, stripper Suzy takes a beating that leaves her unable to perform, she asks her to cover her latest gig. Reluctantly accepting so she can convalesce, she begins to grow uneasy when her driver takes her to a dark and remote location. Once inside, she finds herself imprisoned with a number of other unchaste women by a sadistic captor, Geeves who uses various torture methods to rid them of their impurities.

---

Plot Keywords:

stripper | female nudity | misogyny | female exploitation | violence against woman | 

---

Taglines:

He Made Them Pay For Their Sins

---

Genres:

Horror | Thriller

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

The character of Geeves (Graham McTavish) was based on an actual O.B./G.Y.N. from Australia, who performed genital mutilation on hundreds of female patients.

---

Goofs

In the closing title card, the word "anonymous" is misspelled "anonomous".

User Reviews

Say WHAT??????

I haven't watched all of this mess. Besides, it's screening on Chiller right now, which means I would only see an extremely censored version anyway. This is the kind of movie that makes me wonder what has happened the the American horror film industry. At one time this might have fit into the old misogynistic grind-house genre. But instead of being a Something Weird Video study in cinematographic personal weirdness, what we have here more closely resembles a badly written bit of internet degradation erotica. The very idea that this could get financed without a house being mortgaged astounds me. The idea of a group of people assembling to work on it without the hiring of friends, drug addicts, prostitutes, and/or low level porn vets says something wretched about America today. Somewhere along the line, cheap horror has lost it's charm. Where once we had a fairly consistent flow of wacky attempts to astound, we now are asked to watch some writer and director indulge in their crude, ugly, masturbatory, fantasies. This is not only true of the discount direct-to-DVD market, but of the well financed Hollywood horror flick of the day. The depths that the director's imagination is willing to plummet is the star of the film. It's as though we are reviewing the portfolios of potential serial killers and sexual sadists. So, if I haven't sat through the whole thing, and I dismiss the current trends in horror cinema, why am I even bothering to comment on something I obviously think is beyond is beyond contempt? Simple. As I said, it's screening on Chiller. For this oozing scab to appear on a basic cable channel in mid afternoon, speaks loudly of how far we have fallen. Chiller and the SyFy network were two channels I hoped to be places where I could indulge my lifelong fandom of fantasy cinema. I'm certainly no elitist. I can speak for hours about the oddball and perverse cheap thrills I've had romping through the twisted subconscious of our less fortunate film makers. But now after more than 50 years of fun, I find myself wondering what the Hell happened. Are the media financiers so cynical and disrespecting of their audience that they can ladle this mung on the publics head without a speck of regret? Like I said, I'm no naive child losing my innocence. I'm a lifelong fan of the good, the bad, and the gloriously loopy in the fantasy realm. I've rationalized this by believing that vigorous fantasy is always a revealing social self portrait, thus worthy of serious attention. I still believe that is true, but the portrait I see is of a grimy, bleak, sadistic, mediocre, artless, landscape that can't even bother to create and present something that approaches competency. The fantasy genre now resembles the cafeteria at the end of Orwell's 1984. A gray place serving inedible food to degraded lost souls who realize that all their dreams were just delusions, and reality is just something so pitiful that suicide isn't worth the trouble. How sad....

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 May 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Devil's Dungeon

Filming Locations:

Malibu, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Clever Worm Entertainment

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1