Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Torment (2008)

Look at that DVD cover.  You already know this movie isn't going to be very good.

Ray decides to take wife Lauren to a remote home for a relaxing vacation.  Probably not the best idea since he's just picked her up from the loony bin. Also it's later revealed that she was only released because his insurance ran out and he couldn't afford to continue her treatment.  In other words, Ray is stuck with her and  has no confidence in her mental well being.

When Lauren sees a trash bag blowing down the road she thinks it contains a body.  Later she tells Ray there's a clown outside their vacation home.  Ray doesn't believe her.  A clown? In a rural setting?  Why you'd have to be crazy to think.... oh.

Ray's kind of a dick.  If Lauren is hallucinating because she hasn't recovered from her breakdown, he should be more sensitive and considerate.  Also it's probably not a good idea for him to get drunk, especially when Lauren alludes to him having a drinking problem.

When Ray goes out for groceries, Lauren is visited by a Sheriff looking for two missing Mormon teens... teens who appears to be in their thirties.  Later that night when Lauren goes to bed, the clown is looking in her window.  Since Ray hasn't seen the clown or the Sheriff, he makes it clear that he doesn't believe her, and the marital conflict flares.

While the movie doesn't hit any marks for acting or dialogue, which is essentially handled by Ray and Lauren, the biggest issue is that we damn well know Lauren isn't hallucinating. The movie opens with the killer clown torturing and killing the Mormons.  So the uninteresting dialogue between a married couple in emotional crisis, pedestrian acting, and the lack of any real tension complete a trifecta of blandness.

The most interesting thing in the movie was a discussion involving maps and copyright. I'd never heard of trap streets, which are a nonexistent street added to a map to trap potential copyright violators.  If this fictional information shows up on another companies map, the original company knows their map has been reprinted without permission.


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