For The Sake Of Vicious

One word really stands out in the title of this film. Can you guess what it is? It's not 'The' anyway. Let me give you a clue. Someone in this gets kneecapped, on both sides btw, first by blunt force trauma and later a pair of .357 bullets.  Have you figured it out yet? 

Yeesh.

Romina (Lora Burke) has had the day from hell and things are only getting started. Her hospital shift on Halloween has her shattered and all she wants to do is get her son home from the babysitter and take him trick or treating before falling comatose into her bed. But a wild eyed stranger called Chris (Nick Smyth) has other ideas. He's taken her landlord Alan (Colin Paradine) hostage and he's holding a kangaroo court in her kitchen to find justice for Alan's perceived sins of the past. Sins the law has found him innocent of. Chris isn't convinced and his claw hammer is ready to make it's opening statement.

This could have been a lot better than how it turned out. It's opening 30 minutes are claustrophobic, disorientating and nerve shredding stuff. Romina's the audience proxy, everything she knows we know, caught between two roaring men, both arguing their side, one tied up, one armed and not. Like her we don't know what side to take and only as the nature of the crime is revealed do allegiances form, for her and us. It's a really solid chamber piece, believably performed by a trio of relatively unknown Canadian actors. It's short running time (82 mins) leads you to believe it will continue in this vain throughout, until one side stutters and the truth is outed.....

Sadly it changes direction soon after and turns from a taut thriller into a ridiculous bodycount splatter movie when the house is invaded by a gang of masked goons with their own agenda. The earlier goodwill vanishes as the blood begins to spill and somehow the last 40 minutes feel like twice that. The lean economy of the first act is forgotten as wave after wave of faceless minions get exhaustingly ripped asunder and crushed by knives, cistern lids and hammers. Gritty realism is replaced by horror movie logic as lead characters are stabbed and shot over and over again and just won't go down. It sounds like it should be gory fun but it really isn't. The action, which all occurs in just three rooms of the house isn't unique or impressive enough to have any impact and eventually devolves into a miasma of grunting and arterial spray.

It's a real pity because there's some real talent on display. Nick Smyth's wild eyed and frenzied turn as Chris puts us on edge from the off. Lora Burke's Romina is far from just a spectator to proceedings and her transformation into a crowbar wielding avenger come the climax doesn't feel forced and Colin Paradine's Alan remains ambiguous throughout. He's no grinning panto villain and when the reveal eventually comes it doesn't feel cheap. If only co-directors Gabriel Carrer & Reese Eveneshen had the guts not to go all out. Less is always more.

For The Sake Of Vicious is streaming on google movies now.