 Thanks for checking out this movie review. This is for the 2007 release Captivity So I'm doing spoiler reviews now just so people know So I will say a thing up front for people who are checking this out who haven't seen it yet Who may be looking saying oh, it's it'll be a no spoiler review potentially no It's gonna be spoilers, but I will tell you for people who haven't seen it. I don't recommend I don't recommend this film really So honestly, you can just keep watching this video because I really don't recommend seeing this film It is not worth your time in my opinion for many reasons that I'll go through that are spoiler-laden. So I I was initially aware of this film when it came out because it actually came out during the kind of torture porn portion of the horror genre in the early to mid 2010s and Well early 2000s and I Was into some of those films like saw Hostile, you know those things of the like but Captivity to me it felt like it was coming towards the end of it and it was trying to cash in on it And there's a little bit of that that kind of plays into it as I go through my notes here So when I initially saw that it had come out I was like I said I was aware of it, but I had seen some of the posters for it And it didn't really speak to me. I was just like So I had like the mildest of interests in kind of seeing it But that didn't manifest into me actually seeing it for you know Here I am 12 years later finally saw it and the reason I decided to watch it is because I became aware that it was written by Larry Cohen and I like Larry Cohen stuff. I'm actually a really big fan of the stuff And cue the winged serpent. I haven't seen some of his other ones. I really want to see like it's alive I know that's a big one that people are just like, oh, it's alive. It's probably actually his best film I will get to that eventually and some of his other ones. I will be going through that but yeah cue the winged serpent and the stuff I love those his script writing abilities are really good. He's had a long long career in film some with directing but a lot more with writing so Captivity was much later on in his career when I think he was mainly just writing So yeah, it was in 2007 like I said, so written by Larry Cohen So I was very much like let me check this out because the story could be really good Directed by Roland Joff or Jaffe Whose biggest film on his IMDB credits was the killing fields, which was done in 1984 So to go that long, you know, 1984 to 2007 and not have like anything else big that was Recognized as kind of like meh, okay. It doesn't mean that the skills aren't there for directing It just means that they haven't been directing hits The directing and cinematography actually looked pretty good throughout this film One of the things that I I did like is the the look of it looked really good Especially for that time period when it was all about the torture porn It was kind of like darker colors thing You know the colors were a little bit kind of turned down a little bit slightly muted And so it looked good like a good gritty and grimy which was what was needed for the actual environment of the film So I liked the way it looked and I thought yeah, like I said cinematography and directing was well done so So the film ended up losing six point one million dollars in theaters So between the budget and what it actually made the box office it lost six point one million dollars So obviously it was a pretty big flop The head of after dark films who had put it out Well, it was it was done by the company after dark films and distributed by Lionsgate So after dark films went the head of after dark films Sorry went back and added more gore for American audiences since Hostel and other films like that were so successful around that time So there were other cuts of this film that came out in other countries that had a lot less violence and gore to it So I don't I assume the cut that I saw was the American cut But I would be very much interested to see what those other cuts looked like if I could get my hands on them Although if it's not drastically different do I want to put myself through that? That's the big question Because one of the problems is when I found this out when I was researching it and then I ended up watching it I was like it does seem like there's way too much gore thrown in in the beginning of the film And that's kind of like what it's it seemed like is it it didn't really fit it felt very excessive They were doing a lot of just like super gross intense gore things seemed like just because just to be like here's shock value in your face This is what we're doing right now, right? This is still popular right people. Is this what we should be doing? So it really felt that way and it felt forced and it felt it did feel like thrown in there So you can kind of figure out in the very beginning is where they went back and they were just like throw all this extra stuff in there I mean it makes sense from the story standpoint, but it's total overkill. No pun intended It's total total overkill. They did you way too much of it I was actually eating dinner while I was watching it and it made me a little bit queasy at times because of the stuff Which I was kind of surprised about I must have just been having a sensitive stomach day because usually that stuff Does not make me queasy. I mean I had no problem watching the movie martyrs That is very over the top and intense or each of the killers So those are way more over the top and intense, but um Yeah, so it just It was too much. It was too much. It felt pointless. That's the big thing It's like when you're doing things like that when you're throwing in violence You're throwing in gore for me. I need to know that it's justified That's when it's okay When I just can just tell that you're just throwing it in for shock value or just throwing it in just for that Just for fun that I'm just like Unless it's one of those like older movies Where it's like can't be stupid like the prowler or the mutilator, you know things like that from the 80s so People complained about the marketing of this by the way that I was saying I remember seeing the posters for and Lionsgate immediately pointed the finger at after dark films and they were like we didn't have anything to do with this We didn't know about how they were gonna market it, which I find that kind of hard to believe Because they were gonna be doing the distribution. You're gonna be more involved You're gonna know what's going on, but they Lionsgate was like who us no not us them so basically they it was a bunch of posters that went out showing the main character Alicia Cuthbert in Different phases of distress as she was being held captive because obviously that's what this film is about It's about a star person being held captive for nefarious reasons Which we will talk more about and find out about but So people were disturbed by the marketing of it They they thought it was very disgusting and inappropriate and so there's a lot of backlash for that So the film actually had a giallo Feel to it in the beginning With all with the a kind of like black gloved villain and it looked like they kind of were wearing a trench coat at the same time And then they had a lot of close-ups to because that's another thing. I've noticed that happens Especially in like Dario Argento's giallo films First of all, we always have the black glove killer a lot of times are wearing like a trench coat And then with this film as is with a lot of giallo There were there are a lot of like close-up shots in the beginning showing the villain kit or killer Doing things with their hands like getting things ready kill kits or whatever they do And carrying out their their deeds their evil deeds So I'm wondering if it just happened that way or if it was intentionally written by Larry Cohen to be a little bit homage to giallo Ask or just inspired by giallo because it really felt that way in the beginning and I would be interested anyone Else who's watching this right now if you could put a comment down there and let me know Did you kind of feel that way when you were watching it or even looking back now? Do you think this is valid or am I reading too much into it? I feel like it's valid, but So yeah, so like I said, this was during the torture porn phase of horror Which has a few stunt stints of popularity Actually, you know if you think about it Most people think torture porn and they just think the 2000s the early 2000s like we're talking about saw hostile all that But if you think further back, it's happened a few times throughout history and they're always like kind of a flash in the pan They're kind of I mean they a lot of times will have kind of lasting effects for the overall Genre of horror and where it ends up moving after that, but the actual like torture porn Audience goer Draw is kind of short like think about other things like blood feast and wizard of gore and stuff like that It's not unique. It didn't just happen in the early 2000s. It's happened before it just kind of like resurfaces like popularity of like fashion and you know anything that's popular in society it goes in in like waves and it always recycles at some point So it was pretty intense and disturbing The one part in particular for me that I actually thought was was a decent part That was disturbing and intense was the acid shower scene With them like with the bad guy like pumping the acid through the shower thing onto the person's face And the practical effects of that were actually pretty good And I'm glad they went practical because in the early 2000s, I'm sure they were like, oh, we could do computer graphics It would have looked terrible So I'm glad they went with practical effects there and that one looked good It's a lot of the other stuff could have just come out like Specifically the the blender one that was the big one that I was just like they're just doing this To be over the top and ridiculous and they 100% don't need it where they he like blended up like a blood and body parts Smoothie and like force-fed it to the girl to Alicia Cuthbert's character. I don't remember her name in this by the way I don't even think it's settled that often But um Jennifer is it Jennifer maybe I don't know doesn't matter Doesn't matter never not ever gonna watch this movie again. It's terrible. So yeah, so that's a shower was good So after the torture scene After torture scene upon torture scene, sorry, I'm having a hard time reading my own notes After torture scene upon torture scene you start to really want actual story. It seems like they're padding the runtime. Yes You know now looking back after I did my research I know that the padding was probably just for the American audience thinking oh they want more torture They want more blood and gore and and violence I think it's more that and less padding the runtime, but it doesn't have a long runtime I think it's like one hour and around an hour and 20 minutes or something. So I don't know The music and sound design is actually pretty good in this they did a decent job with that It matches what they're going for with it It matches the environment the atmosphere the set design all that stuff the feeling of what you're supposed to be getting So that stuff was well handled I actually wrote down that I felt like it was a mix of between saw and hostile and if you're watching this and you have seen the movie Already, you know exactly what I'm talking about because there's a little bit of like a trap Component to it and playing a game and messing with someone's mind and and then and that's more like what saw was doing And then there's the component of just like Brutality and gore and viscera and all that stuff and that's more the hostile aspect of things so What am I okay? So I wrote I'm gonna have to just read it out and work. I'm sorry sometimes I write things down And I'm just like why did I write this so I said if the brother was still alive wouldn't he go after the person who tried to kill him Okay, so this is actually referring to fast forward I don't even need to cover it in in all that much detail all the torture that goes on with the main character and then she meets the brother and The one brother who's we we find out. Oh, he's in on it Which I saw that coming like a ways away as soon as it was revealed that there was another person being held captive Other than Alicia Cuthbert's character. I was like that guy's in on it Obviously, especially because of the way he was acting towards her. So I saw it coming a mile away But once everything progressed and they got through the torture and and all that going on And she got free and then you know the one brother had stabbed the other brother and you thought oh, you know He's probably dead at this point, but we find out he's not dead So he immediately goes and attacks Alicia Cuthbert's character because he sees that she's loose Why wouldn't he immediately go attack his brother who tried to kill him that makes no sense at all if you are Bleeding you're potentially dying Wouldn't you take out the person who tried to take you out as opposed to this random person who's actually Innocent and didn't try to do anything to you that that part of it doesn't make any sense You got a love the shining ripoff scene Where though the the skinnier guy is his name Jeff in this for some reason I feel like it's Jeff We're just gonna go with it Jeff Where Jeff is coming through the door like it's a clear I don't want to say homage because this movie is crappy. So I would just say rip off It's a clear rip off of the shining where he's beating through the bathroom door with an axe And it and he looks through it and it's just like I you know, I roll my eyes like Doing doing that a long time ago as an homage to it is fine But the thing is the shining is so well known right now that doing it is just I Roll inducing because it's it's overwrought like everyone's done it so many people have already done that and it's just like be original stop This I find the use of mice and rats in this film to signify Things being dirty as pretty tired and stupid. That's that's yet another thing It's just it's these tropes that people fall into who are just like I'm not a creative thinker I I'm just gonna throw this crap in there Yeah, the being like oh, there's rats and there's mice. So obviously it's a dirty that whole symbolism is Overwrought once again. It's something that's been done to death and we don't need to do it You know what tells me if a place is dirty If it looks dirty put some dirt on the walls make it colored dark, which I think they do in this already So when you're seeing like the rats in the mice it adds literally nothing and you actually have to pay for an Animal wrangler to be on set so you're just adding costs for something you clearly don't need because it already looks dingy and dirty and dark You don't need it. It's dumb. It's pointless. I think we should be really getting away from stuff like that in film because it's It's useless. It's needless. You don't need it. You can cut some money off the budget and you can save the animals some stress I Was expecting this whole thing to be revealed as an extreme matchmaking dating service I felt like that actually would have been kind of a good twist I mean in a way, that's kind of what it ended up being at the end because it was As I'm calling him right now because I can't remember who it was Jeff as Jeff was going through you could kind of see that He's having his time with these women and he's enjoying Tricking them into falling in love with him because of basically a stock kind of like a Stockholm syndrome Which if people don't know the Stockholm syndrome is just basically where a cap a captive a Falls are either falls in love or just feels some sort of like Relationship with their captor. It's an actual like studied psychological thing. I think one of the biggest Examples that's used of it was Patty Hirsch Who was Kidnapped a long time by the Symbianese Liberation Army is what they call themselves. It's not really It wasn't really an army, but she then ended up joining in with them and being involved in their crimes I think like some bank robberies And they found out it was because like Stockholm syndrome that they had like psychologically Through through I think it was through It wasn't I don't think it was through violence but through like stress and the combination of like stressing her out and putting her in peril but then also like Coming coming by right now and then and being like oh, but we're actually nice and we're actually your friend Like she started to feel some sort of bond with her captors And so that that's one of the things that's really at play in this and if they would have played that up a lot More in the film. I think it could have been more interesting But you know, they just had too much other crap in it that just did not work and And then just the focus on the brutality of it I felt took a lot away from it And that's why I would actually kind of be interested to see what the actual initial script looks like Because I don't even know if they took passes at the script before they shot it and kind of Changed things up because that that happens too. It definitely happens. So but um, I Mean the idea of what was going on was fine It's just it was executed very very poorly in my opinion So I wrote down this is what happens when people put out recycled crap to make money That I mean that's literally what this feels like like I was saying it felt like it was a combination of saw and hostile and Literally, that's like recycled. It's recycled crap because saw and hostile were very popular on their own Let them do that. They can do their sequels. They can try and cash in You come up with something new you come up with something original that as a filmmaker and as a writer and everything do your thing That's why I also would just be I keep going back to the script and like what was the script like I also want to know did Larry Cohen come up with this concept himself and write the script or was it he was Approached by by someone and was just like, hey, we really will write like you to write this specific script so those types of things really do matter in my opinion because One it in one instance if it just came from him proactively that was from his creativity and from his own drive but if it came at the direction of someone that Could on it could make sense why it's not that great because a lot of times those things end up being very forced It's like these aren't ideas I'm organically coming up with and therefore I'm not as invested in it and driven to do it and passionate about it But I'll get the job done, you know So I Like I said, I saw the twist coming and it's the whole Stockholm syndrome thing already talked about that. So in the end it's just My last note One of the most whatever movies I've seen. I mean really like I Watched the whole thing. I felt like not watching the whole thing But I did because I always do that for these reviews especially But it just I got done with it. I was just like, yeah, I mean, I Kind of hated it, but then I was also kind of I think I was a little more on the meh side of it So I just wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It's just totally not worth it It is one of these films that totally feels like It showed up late to the party with a particular subgenre of horror and was like ooh, ooh wait wait Can I get in on this real quick? Can I sneak in here? Please people and then the audience said ooh, no, no, no, no, no, you're gonna have to stay outside You're not coming into this party Because captivity is not very well known to this day, but you know, that's why it is So the big question becomes how do I do a star rating on this out of five stars with half stars in play? That's a hard one. So I think I'm gonna go one and a half stars I never go below one or actually I don't I won't I've never given a half star. I won't go below Half a star because I have to give a rating So I'm gonna give it one and a half stars and the one and a half is because at its core it's not a terrible concept and The cinematography was good. The directing was good. The acting was actually pretty solid for the most part So, you know and the acid shower was cool. That was a good original idea But on that yeah, one and a half stars don't recommend it. I don't like it So thanks for checking out this review review though. I hope people stuck it out. Anyway, hit that subscribe for me If you can please repay me by hitting that subscribe because I sat through this terrible movie, please Put some comments down there. Have you seen this? How do you feel about it? Let's talk Actually, I'd love to hear from someone who says I actually really like this film and explain to me why because hey Different opinions. I just want to hear it But thank you everyone for checking this out and until next time keep it brutal