This movie lurked around my queue for a long time, intriguing me, but I was hesitant to watch it because it was a low-budget movie with barely any reviews around anywhere and there was thus a huge chance it would suck terribly and be a big waste of my time. I finally checked it out the other day, hoping it would hold up to my exacting standards (meaning I hoped it didn't suck). At first, I was pretty sure it was going to wind up being horrible. The main actor who plays the lead character (whose name we never really know) isn't bad, but the movie jumps right into the plot, as we see him abducted right away and when he wakes up he's in a cell, with a sadistic "doctor" type character and his assistant (who might as well be named Igor since he never talks and seems to live only to do the doctor's bidding).
This is when the movie becomes more trying to watch, because these two are NOT the greatest actors, and the doctor's wooden line delivery really made my eye twitch. I was intrigued about what was happening, though. At first it seems that the "doctor" abducted the guy for the sole purpose of keeping him captive and torturing him for no reason, but after awhile, it becomes clear that the doctor has a method to his madness, a plan for everything that's happening. It's pretty nasty, too. There isn't an overabundance of gore in this movie, but what does happen onscreen is pretty disgusting, even if it is more suggestion than anything else.
Once everything about the doctor's plan is revealed, it definitely made me wince, and I applaud the movie for having slightly loftier ambitions than most other torture-themed movies. This isn't torture for torture's sake alone, and even though the movie's tagline sort of gives away most of what's going on, the movie was different and tried to do some interesting things, and the main character's performance carries the movie to a higher level and makes it better than I first expected.
Actually, I really enjoyed this movie. The main character is never actually given a name, which makes it work in a way, and the assistant/uncle did have a name, but fuck me if I can remember what it was now (been about 2yrs since I've seen it). The actor who played the doctor reminded me of Ron Rifkin and Joel Gray that it may have distracted me to whether or not he could act. It's interesting, as a trivial/side note, the poster is very similar to that of an 80's movie, except the head is different.
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