CAPTIVITY: Unrated Edition
© Lionsgate
Mania Grade: D+
Rated: Unrated
Cast: Elisha Cuthbert, Daniel Gillies
Writer: Larry Cohen
Director: Roland Joffe
Distributor: Lionsgate
Original Year of Release: 2007
Extras: Making of Featurette, On the Set Featurette, Deleted Scenes and two alternate endings.
Buy it now!
Rated: Unrated
Cast: Elisha Cuthbert, Daniel Gillies
Writer: Larry Cohen
Director: Roland Joffe
Distributor: Lionsgate
Original Year of Release: 2007
Extras: Making of Featurette, On the Set Featurette, Deleted Scenes and two alternate endings.
Buy it now!
CAPTIVITY: Unrated Edition
By: Tim JansonReview Date: Sunday, November 18, 2007
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…A maniac is kidnapping people and imprisoning them in a dank, dungeon-like setting. The hooded fiend has numerous cameras set up to watch his prisoner’s every moved. He subjects them to all manner of grotesque physical and mental tortures. He toys with them, forcing them to make moral decisions. No it’s not the latest installment in the “Saw” franchise although it might as well be called Saw Lite, or Saw Jr., or maybe even Saw Wannabe. But no, this is Captivity and Director Roland Joffe needs to cut a check to Saw creator James Wan for “borrowing” so many of his plot elements.
Fashion model Jennifer Tree (Cuthbert) is drugged in a nightclub and taken to the mystery man’s house of horrors. She’s shown video of another victim having acid sprayed onto their face aned soon is subjected to the same treatment. She wakes with her face covered in bloody bandages but her face is perfectly fine, it was just a game. The films only gross-out gore involves “Hoody” making a milkshake out of various body parts including eyeballs and ears and forcing it down Jennifer’s throat with a funnel. I guess that’s what earned the “unrated” label but it’s A ball compared to Saw’s visceral depravity.
Jennifer discovers she’s not the only captive. Gary (Gillies) is being held in the cell next to her, separated by heavy glass so they can be forced to watch each other’s perils. Of Course, if you can’t guess the Saw-esque twist right at this point, then shame on you. Honestly I’m not the biggest fan of the Saw films. I think they’ve gotten progressively worse with each new chapter and it’s just warmed over leftovers at this point. But at least the first film had some originality to it and they are still coming up with new and creative ways to kill people. Captivity has none of that…no inventiveness, no shock value, no surprises you could not see coming from a mile away.
Funny thing is, Joffe’s no hack…he’s made some good dramas, notably 1984’s “The Killing Fields” but this is his first take on a horror film and it shows. There’s no real build up…no reason explained why Jennifer was picked in the first place. Jigsaw at least had his moral compass reasoning for the victims he chose. There’s just no suspense, and really very little plot. The only saving grace to the picture is Cuthbert herself who does her best to carry the picture and is in almost every scene. She’s tough, beautiful, and strong-willed and she’s virtually the only reason to watch “Captivity”. The film was made by After Dark Studios, the same people behind Horrorfest’s “8 Films to Die For” and if this had been one of those 8 films, it easily would rank as the worst of the lot.
There are a few decent extras, nothing to raise the film’s grade, certainly. Cuthbert looks positively bored and embarrassed when giving her comments on the film during the Making of featurette. Only for die-hard Cuthbert fans…
More From Mania
Cuthbert Talks CAPTIVITY Experience
Cuthbert Talks CAPTIVITY & More
(Saturday, June 30, 2007)
MPAA Disciplines "Captivity"
(Friday, March 30, 2007)
Marco Beltrami in CAPTIVITY
(Wednesday, December 28, 2005)
Cuthbert Placed in CAPTIVITY
(Monday, May 9, 2005)
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