PENANCE

PENANCE

(A.k.a. THE DEVIL'S DUNGEON)

"The following tapes were found at the abandoned Lichtenstein Hospital for the Criminally Insane ... along with 14 dead bodies".

Yes, it's time for another film consisting of handheld video footage purported to have been found and edited together by unscrupulous filmmakers ...

Then we're shocked by the image of Amelia (Marieh Delfino), who stares distressed into the screen as she declares to have been "beaten, humiliated, abused, stripped ...", and begs for someone - anyone - to come and rescue her.

The film then backtracks as we meet Amelia in happier times, gladly allowing her mostly off-screen partner Will (Garrett Jones) to film her and her daughter at home. We then cut to the exterior of a shelter for battered women, where Amelia finds her job as a counsellor there highly rewarding.

However, behind the smiles and the seemingly idyllic set-up, Amelia is struggling to make ends meet due to her poorly daughter's mounting medical bills. Hoping to generate interest in herself by having Will document her plight to raise cash, Amelia ends the week by resigning to visit her friend Suzie (Eve Mauro) - and take lessons from her in the art of stripping.

At this stage Will is otherwise engaged and so Amelia and her camera are forced to venture out to a stripper's party alone.

After surviving the sordid bash and discovering how much money Suzie makes exploiting her wares ("that's more than I make in a week" Amelia muses) Amelia addresses the camera for the sake of her daughter and explains that, although she's uncomfortable with what she's about to do, she believes it to be for the best for them both: "Everything I do, I do it for you". Aah.

And so, the stripping commences.

Following a highly lucrative week getting naked for drooling male strangers, Amelia and Will are delighted to see how much money they have accumulated. But then Amelia receives a telephone call from Suzie. Suzie has been beaten up by a punter.

With Will filming, Amelia rushes round to see Suzie and learns that she is supposed to be attending a gig that evening at a plush house where she expects to earn a whopping $5,000.00. Inevitably, Suzie asks Amelia to make the appointment for her.

Initially reluctant, Amelia eventually agrees to assume Suzie's identity and take the job. She cautiously proceeds to the exclusive destination with Will in tow to film events.

As if being picked up by a creepy chauffeur (Tony Todd) isn't warning enough of what is to come, Amelia gets to the house and shares drinks with a couple of other nervous-looking strippers who've also been hired to entertain the mystery client - only for sharp-dressed hitman Mann (Michael Rooker) to enter the room and freak them all out.

Once the women all faint from the effects of their drugged alcohol, Mann disposes of Will with a bullet to the head ... and in walks Geeves (Graham McTavish), a surgeon who just so happens to also be a religious nutter.

Beyond the sparsely decorated reception area where the women lie comatose, the building they have unwittingly entered is a disused hospital where Geeves and his sadistic assistants plan to "purify" these immoral women by way of some very probing examinations indeed ...

What follows is an especially grim, downbeat traverse through torture porn territory that wallows in the screams of its female victims while frequently taking time out to have its victims stripped and beaten. Amelia continues to film these awful events - even, bizarrely, when they're happening to her - presumably as proof, should she ever leave the hospital alive.

PENANCE professes to be based on a true story. That's about as real as the fact that this is found camcorder footage we're observing. Er, the name actors, slick editing and choice music on the soundtrack put paid to that notion.

Still, PENANCE does work once you get over the fact that the idea of this being "found footage" is a silly one that director Jake Kennedy apparently has no interest in attempting to authenticate.

The cameo appearances from the likes of Todd, Rooker, Jason Connery and James Duval (MAY) are all enjoyable - Rooker steals the show during his brief turn as the scary assassin - and Delfino impresses as the vulnerable, believable lead.

Commendably straight-faced and unabashedly gruesome at times, although never overly graphic, PENANCE also has a darkness about it that feels genuinely grimy. It's unapologetically brutal at times, in a manner akin to the misogynistic medical tortures perpetrated by the Nazis in 70s fare such as SS EXPERIMENT LOVE CAMP and THE GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY.

Which of course makes the violence in the film a tad unsavoury, in a political sense at the very least. Thank the Lord for the copious extras on this disc, which allay any fears that Kennedy is a sick fuck who fantasises about watching females suffer.

Elsewhere, the biggest turn-off of the film is the rum religious dialogue that McTavish gets saddled with. It seems that every screen lunatic since Hopkins' Oscar-winning stab at Hannibal Lecter is obliged to justify their actions with a badly scripted monologue stumbled through in big-worded earnest. Kennedy's script walks McTavish into the very same trap.

A small film filled with unrepentant ugliness (those with a fetish for genital violence - male and female - will be in Seventh Heaven), PENANCE is likely to offend some but has more to offer than your average torture porn. It's certainly not to be dismissed as yet another dismal HOSTEL clone.

PENANCE comes unrated and uncut in a deliberately murky-looking anamorphic 1.66:1 presentation. Colours are somewhat restrained while images are frequently dark. All in keeping with the idea of this film representing "found footage", of course. That being said, grain is non-existent and images remain sharp throughout. The film is perfectly watchable if you remember to expect a raw, gritty feel to proceedings.

English audio comes graced with a serviceable 5.1 surround mix. This is competent without being striking, but runs with little complaint in terms of audible dialogue or ungainly balance issues.

A static main menu page leads into a similarly static scene-selection menu allowing access to the main feature via 24 chapters.

IMD's disc is generous in the way of bonus features.

These kick off with a 100-second "unrated" trailer that races along at high speed, making a good case for PENANCE being a lot more action-packed than it is.

The "R-rated" trailer follows, which seemed to me to be identical to the above. Certainly, both are very careful to highlight the inclusion of Rooker and Todd among their cast.

Three alternate endings last a total of five minutes. Without giving too much away, the first is a slow detective story-type wrap-up. The second, and best, is a bittersweet ending complete with grim "facts" appearing on the screen as text, clueing us in on just how many women are presently walking the Earth suffering the after-effects of 'female genitalia mutilation'. The final option is also the shortest and, like the second alternative, is set on a beach. It's the most upbeat of the three.

Five deleted scenes follow in anamorphic 1.66:1. These run over a total of 18 minutes, with the longest being the first - at 12 minutes in length. They're all pretty plodding and would undoubtedly have harmed the film's pace, had they stayed put.

Two commentary tracks are provided to offer insight into what the film was hoping to achieve. The first is from Kennedy, while he's joined on the second by producer Will Clevinger. The latter is the better of the two, with the pair engaging enthusiastically over the sinister themes at play throughout the film and sharing their obvious elation over getting such a great cast together.

Kennedy's solo track is more scene-specific, and deals more intricately with how each scene was set-up and fulfilled. He also speaks a little more freely about how certain cast members were enticed on board, and how the grim tone of the film was painstakingly sought after.

"How To Strip With Marieh And Eve" is exactly what it sounds like: a 3-minute crash-course in how to disrobe sexily. In character.

A series of cast interviews follow, and these are also conducted "in character". Which is precisely as embarrassing as it sounds. Kennedy is off-screen, probing each cast member individually as they glare earnestly into the camera. Go on, try not to giggle at any point during this 12-minute vanity piece.

A 23-minute "Behind The Scenes" documentary is better, with plenty of enjoyable on-set action and rehearsal footage to chew over.

"Anatomy Of A Scene" is a revealing 13-minute look at not only how a single-take scene was achieved, but how Kennedy and his cinematographer Lawles Bourque strived to keep it visually interesting. The preparation and consideration witnessed before the scene begins shooting make for fascinating viewing.

Next up is a 19-minute video interview with Kennedy, most of which is conducted in May 2008 and three weeks before production started. He refers to the film under it's working title THE DEVIL'S DUNGEON before offering a brief background on himself, and then going into a valuably comprehensive account of how PENANCE escalated from dream to reality. Kennedy comes across as a thoughtful, friendly and erudite Australian with an agreeable level of honesty to complement his determination. It's interesting to see how Kennedy's confidence grows by the time the final five minutes of this interview, recorded on June 9th 2008 and a day before shooting began, once he has everything - including a dream cast - in place.

"Location Scout" is a self-explanatory 5-minute featurette offering video diary-style footage of Kennedy and crew stumbling across their empty hospital setting.

Finally there's a 5-minute promo reel for some truly terrible-looking films that are also available from IMD: CRIMINAL DESIRE, DEADLY RECKONING, NO REST FOR THE WICKED, MY EX-GIRLFRIEND'S WEDDING RECEPTION and TEXAS TALIBAN. Look forward to bad action movie clips, poor horror film snippets and some truly risible sex comedy excerpts among this motley batch.

PENANCE is an ugly and at times nasty little thriller that thankfully benefits from just enough technical skill and acting finesse to qualify it as noteworthy. The cameos are fun and the handheld camera technique does successfully help the film achieve a certain level of claustrophobia.

Great disc, mildly interesting film.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by IMDFILMS
Region 1 - NTSC
Not Rated
Extras :
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