ABDUCTION

ABDUCTION wastes no time in establishing its premise: Process is a small town in middle-of-nowhere America where Mayor Jacob (Tony Rugnetta) and his slimy henchman Johnny (Roberto Lombardi) oversee the livelihood of their community - abducting any female unfortunate to stumble into their midst.

The aims, we quickly find out in an establishing conversation at the local barber shop, are to keep the women as sex slaves, harvest their organs and even impregnate the best of them so that the babies can be sold on to desperate couples. The only problem is, business is slow as the last few abductees have been unsuitable (unfit, "inked up" etc).

Jacob is not happy as this is affecting the financial security of his self-sufficient town, and so he orders his minions to set about bringing in a better quality of slave ...

Cue taser-assisted abductions of some rather fit fillies from differing backgrounds. But the locals are still getting it wrong - the first cute girl they strip off and inspect has a tattoo just above her groin. She's no good, and is promptly done in by way of Clingfilm stretched across her face.

Then we meet Carlo (Brian M Wixson), who's on the telephone to his famous pop singer girlfriend begging her to be careful while he travels to Process on a business trip. Just in case she runs into any weird fans, he's bought her a stun gun that looks just like a mobile telephone, and tells her he's left it for her to pick up when she calls by their apartment later that day.

Hmm. Could this possibly be put to use at a crucial moment later in the film?

As Carlo starts to realise upon arriving in Process, it's an odd community where the locals don't want anything to do with the trappings of the modern world (no telephones or televisions, for example) and unusual noises in the night begin to disturb his sleep at the local motel.

One aspect of modern life Jacob does adhere to, though, is the Internet. Primarily because it is the perfect place to auction off his slaves.

Not much happens for a while. But once Carlo gets an inkling of what's going down and, primarily, when his own girlfriend goes looking for him and is consequently captured by the townsfolk, the ante is upped somewhat.

One thing Jacob and his bunch of oddball followers didn't bank on though, is the singer's besotted bodyguard Donny (S Freddor). After his own unwitting dalliance with a Process wench himself, he hotfoots it into town looking to kick some arse and get the girl of his dreams back ...

ABDUCTION wasn't what I was expected. I was anticipating some cheap, tawdry torture-porn akin to HOSTEL shot on digital format. In actual fact, it's a more plot-based affair that's as heavy on dialogue as it is bare breasts.

The story twists just enough times to lend it some genuine originality, while the cast do their best to serve justice to director John Orrichio's mostly decent script. There are weak performances here and there but, for a low budget production, it's all mostly competent.

Though definitely sleazy, ABDUCTION manages to focus more on plot and characters, eschewing any overt dip into gory melodramatics or gratuitous sex. As a result it is perhaps too tame for some tastes. Certainly while it sounds like a cross between HOSTEL, PINK FLAMINGOS and ABDUCTED on paper, in actual fact it's more like a Troma film played bizarrely straight.

The film is presented uncut in this "unrated" release (I'm not aware of any sanitised version?) and is enhanced for 16x9 TV sets. Colours are strong and images are relatively sharp. The digital photography is not the brightest, but the DVD mastering does the best that it can with it. Overall, considering the low budget constraints of the film in hand, the presentation is fair.

English 2.0 audio is adequate throughout.

R2 Films' DVD opens with a simple but striking animated main menu page, utilising the image from the cover art to good effect.

From there, there is a static scene-selection menu allowing access to the main feature via 6 chapters.

Extras begin with a 12-minute Behind The Scenes featurette made up of cast and crew interviews. This relaxed affair is hosted by the surprisingly affable Rugnetta.

19 minutes of cast auditions follow. These are interesting and mostly engaging, if not somewhat cringe-inducing at frequent intervals. Rugnetta clearly revels in being able to read the script alongside his potential co-stars, but watching this is compellingly awkward.

"Muevelo" by Lady Lyric and DJ Quake is a 3-minute music video clip for the Latino dance track that features in the film. Shot in what appears to be someone's ample living room, the song sounds better if you turn away from the screen.

"The Girls Of Abduction" is three-and-a-half minutes of outtakes and deleted scenes set to another Latin-flavoured rap song. It's a good excuse for anyone looking to ogle more tits.

A 4-minute montage of behind-the-scenes stills is set to predictable bad rock music (it sounds like Motley Crue playing out of key).

Finally we get a couple of trailers for ABDUCTION which unfortunately cannot disguise how cheap Orrichio's film is. Out of the two trailers proffered, the second one is darker and all the better for it.

The disc is defaulted to open with a couple of trailers for low-rent horror films, each offering their share of boobies and cheap gore. Titles include DREAMS OF THE DEAD (a re-edited version of Orrichio's own earlier THE HAUNTING OF DANBURY HOUSE) and METHODIC (the latter looks to be the best of a bad bunch).

ABDUCTION has been hailed by some as Orrichio's finest directorial effort to date. I suppose only those familiar with his REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE (no relation to Rollin), BLACK RIBBON, THE POSSESSION OF FATHER THOMAS and the aforementioned DEAD can quantify this claim.

For what it's worth, speaking as a newcomer to the man's work, ABDUCTION was neither great nor piss-poor. It has its good points - an original plot, consistent atmosphere, a few unexpected directions - but also falls prey to some of the pratfalls of no-budget filmmaking (dodgy performances; people's houses used very obviously as settings). Cheap but not exactly tawdry, ABDUCTION is a thing of minor curiosity.

Review by Stu Willis