Torment (UK DVD)
Gareth Jones
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Starring Katharine Isabelle, Robin Dunne, Peter DaCunha, Stephen McHattie, Noah Danby
Directed by Jordan Barker
Distributed by Altitude Film Distribution
Newlyweds Cory (Dunne) and Sarah (Isabelle) head out to Cory’s holiday home in the country in order to get some bonding time in Jordan Barker’s home invasion horror Torment. As a widower, Cory is having a tough time building a relationship between his new wife and his young son, Liam (DaCunha), who remains highly resentful of Sarah’s perceived attempts to take the place of his deceased mother.
Unfortunately for them, it very quickly becomes apparent that they aren’t alone in the house – and when Liam disappears and a silent family of psychopaths begin stalking the couple while wearing masks forged from Liam’s stuffed toys, the scene is set for a night of… well, torment.
There’s little in the way of ingenuity or creativity in Barker’s approach to the home invasion subgenre, leaving Torment doing little more than walking a well-trodden path for its runtime. Like a cross between The Strangers and White Settlers, it’s just another stalk and slash (or bash, or shoot) through darkened hallways and night-enveloped woodland. Still, the lead performances from Isabelle and Dunne are good, though the hasty nature of the script leaves them little time to forge a convincing chemistry in the early stages. Dunne especially takes the brunt of the torture as he’s forced to face the reality that this crazy family is after his son, and he brings a believability to the stresses, both emotional and physical, forced upon his character. The always-great Stephen McHattie shows up for a couple of scenes as the ill-fated local sheriff, but he’s a woefully underused talent, here.
At a brief runtime of just under 80 minutes, Torment doesn’t bide its time in getting to the goods – and that’s much to its favour given its refusal to bring anything particularly new to the game. The look of the villains is certainly creepy – especially head honcho Mr. Mouse – but too little is known of their motivations. As Mr. Mouse, Noah Danby makes for a very imposing figure, but writers Michael Foster and Thomas Pound struggle with both trying to let us in on the murderous patriarch’s mindset and building fear through the unknown. The result is villain exposition that sheds a little light on what may be going on, but doesn’t go far enough towards building something genuinely compelling. There’s a twist of sorts towards the end which feels like it’s supposed to be a shocker, but falls flat given an almost complete lack of reasoning as to why it should be particularly shocking to us.
Still, besides the occasional narrative failing and overriding familiarity, Torment looks pretty great on-screen. Boris Mojsovski’s cinematography has a clear, professional sheen to it, and he manages to handle the constant darkness very well (save for one or two scenes during which it becomes difficult to see what exactly is going on). Overall, Torment isn’t exactly a bad way to pass some time, but there are much more interesting home invasion flicks out there that see it pale in comparison. It lacks the cruelty and nihilism of The Strangers and the breakout energy of You’re Next, but it does deliver the odd chill and effectively startling moment. One for a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Altitude Film Distribution’s UK DVD release of Torment is as clean and clear in terms of visuals and audio as one could expect from the format. No problems either way on this one. Unfortunately, in terms of special features we have only the trailer.
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Special Features
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