Chained (2012)

Bob, a cab-driving serial killer who stalks his prey on the city streets alongside his reluctant protégé Tim, who must make a life or death choice between following in Bob's footsteps or breaking free from his captor.

Director:

Jennifer Lynch

Writers:

Damian O'Donnell (based on a screenplay by), Jennifer Lynch (screenplay)

Stars:

Vincent D'Onofrio, Eamon Farren, Evan Bird

3 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vincent D'Onofrio	...	Bob
Eamon Farren	...	Rabbit
Evan Bird	...	Younger Rabbit
Julia Ormond	...	Sarah Fittler
Conor Leslie	...	Angie
Jake Weber	...	Brad Fittler
Gina Philips	...	Marie
Daniel Maslany	...	Young Bob
Benjamin DeWalt	...	Son
Lyndon Bray	...	Nasty Father
Michael Maslany	...	Young Brad
Kate Herriot	...	The Runner
Alexander Doerksen	...	Colin (as Alex Doerksen)
Troy Skog	...	Bob's Dad
Shannon Jardine	...	Bob's Mom

Storyline

This movie is about A cab driver called Bob (Vincent D'Onofrio) who picks up women and takes them to his house where he kills them. But on this one day he picks up a woman and her 9 year old son Tim. Bob then makes Tim live in the house with him all while he keeps killing women. Tim grows up there, watching, seeing all that happens. Bob wants to make him his protégé. Will Tim carry on the legacy?

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Plot Keywords:

serial killer | isolated house | traumatic childhood experience | childhood trauma | first sexual experience | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for disturbing and sadistic violent content including bloody killings and rape, and for language and sexuality

Details

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 July 2013 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Rabbit

Filming Locations:

Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

Envision Media Arts, RGB Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The original script called for Bob to keep pieces of his victims in jars and cut off Rabbit's thumbs. When Jennifer Lynch took on the project, she did some re-writes to reduce the violent nature of the film.

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Goofs

When Bob freaks out in his garage after having flashbacks, you can see a male crew member wearing a baseball cap in the side mirror of the taxi.

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Quotes

Bob: You look like your mother.
Rabbit: My dad's gonna find you.
Bob: If- if that's what you believe.

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Crazy Credits

The credits play over sounds of Rabbit in the house. There is no music. Among the sounds are what appear to be Rabbit cutting out an article for the scrapbook, exiting the garage, and leaving in the taxi cab.

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Connections

Featured in Film '72: Episode dated 16 January 2013 (2013)

User Reviews

Original plot, very well executed. About a taxi driver collecting women to be murdered, but primarily about his involuntary young helper and their interaction

I saw this film at the Imagine film festival 2013 in Amsterdam. The plot seems mildly interesting at first, about a taxi driver (Bob) who takes women to his remote house, murders them and buries them in his cellar. The screaming and blood spraying involved in such activities, have been filmed many times before. This time, however, there is an original twist when he brings home a 9 year old boy (Tim) along with his mother, kills and buries the latter (as usual), but he keeps Tim to clean his house and prepare meals. Of course, Tim tries to escape but he fails and thus gets tied to a long chain, so that he can move through the house and perform his daily chores, among others burying women after Bob slaughters them.

This involuntarily form of cohabitation goes on for some 10 years. We see the young Tim change into an adolescent version. Bob tries to educate him by giving encyclopedia and other text books to read. Tim remains devoid of any external contacts, unable to leave the house while being retrained by his chain (hence the film title).

In the meantime, the usual process of collecting and killing women goes on. By means of flashbacks we observe that Bob has a background not only of being mistreated as a child, but was also forced to have sex with his mother. We don't get all the gory details about his past, but in several dreams we get the picture what sort of things happened in his youth, and apparently deformed his character for life.

The story becomes interesting when Bob makes serious attempts to interest Tim for the female body, and to arouse his sexual desires. Bob lets Tim choose from a photo book to find out which type he finds most attractive, then collects one looking like that example, all being a setup in the hopes that Tim and the girl have sex together. But Tim fails to settle down with her and let nature take its course. He is aware that Bob is watching every move via a camera in that room. Even worse, Bob interferes some of the time when things are not progressing fast enough. When Bob insists that he should grab the chance to explore the female body, Tim rebuts that he knows that inside and outside from books, obviously missing the point Bob wants to make. Though the girl tries to make the best of the situation and wants to help him a bit, this scene ends with blood since handling a knife is what Tim knows best.

I refrain from revealing how the story continues from this point, if only to prevent spoiling some surprising turns of events. For example, there comes a time when Tim is able to set himself free, and even meets his father who (of course) did not expect to even see him again after being lost for 10 years. Unexpectedly, this encounter does not lead to a happy family re-union, and there is a reason for that (see for yourself). As a result, Tim is thrown back on his own devices. We suspect (but that end is left open) that his only choice is to continue Bob's secret operations, and to make a fresh start with "volunteering" a new helper.

All in all, the original plot is employed very well. There were absolutely no dull moments, in spite of the constrained setting where most of the action takes place (there are very few outdoor scenes). The tension was very well spread over the running time. I consider this a formidable achievement with a cast consisting mainly of Bob and Tim, where all other roles are no more than short appearances. A few scenes were even hilarious, in spite of the dark circumstances, for instance when they play quartets with the ID cards of the women they killed. I gave the maximum score for the audience award when leaving the theater. Not all my co-viewers in the festival agree, however, since this film ended on a mediocre 21st place (out of 46) on the rating list.