THE UNFORGIVING

THE UNFORGIVING

South Africa's belated entry into the seemingly unstoppable 'torture porn' cycle ...

It opens with earnest cop Hirsch (Michael Thompson) quizzing Rex (Ryan Macquet) about how he managed to survive being abducted from the roadside by a masked maniac who shackled him by the ankle in a scrap-yard and plotted to torture him to death.

As Rex begins to tell his story to Hirsch, we become privy to flashbacks which reveal how he was held by a figure in a gasmask who attempted to communicate with his prisoner via pieces of card with messages scribbled in marker pen (a technique presumably robbed from Bob Dylan and his "Subterranean Homesick Blues" routine ...).

Hirsch listens intently to the nervous Rex for several minutes, and then switches his attentions to the only other survivor of this suspected serial killer: recovering junkie Alice (Claire Opperman). She's being held in the interrogation room next to Rex's. Her story is similar: beginning with a tale of being stranded on a highway just outside Johannesburg, accosted and beaten by a gasmask-wearing assailant, and then stumbling across the scrap-yard of horror.

As the witnesses' stories unfurl and the flashbacks continue, we keep cutting back to Hirsch on occasion - and he starts to heat up his interrogation, pointing out anomalies in their accounts and pushing for the truth ...

I must apologise for the brief synopsis of this film. But, as the remainder of the plot largely proceeds to flit between Hirsch's interviews with the two survivors and flashbacks illustrating their breathless versions of events, it's barely possible to elaborate without tossing in major spoilers. Not that there is much of a plot until the minor twist presents itself (it does admittedly improve in the second half - but that's not saying much).

Rumoured to have cost around 40,000 South African Rand (about £3,600.00) to make, you've got admire the filmmakers for attempting a home-grown genre effort in a country that's still relatively fresh in terms of horror cinema. But it persists that THE UNFORGIVING pillages ideas from the SAW series without shame, and as a consequence makes the likes of LIVE FEED and ARE YOU SCARED? seem positively pioneering.

It's not that it's badly made, as technically it isn't. Writer-director Alastair Orr has a knack for fashioning his shots in a manner that makes handheld close-ups feel like less of an effort to hide traces of his film's low budget, and more an attempt to emulate the style of modern TV dramas such as CSI. His pacing is brisk and Wikus du Toit's clanging score registers on numerous occasions.

A shout-out goes to cinematographer Craig Maarschalk too. Despite the best efforts of Orr's close-up techniques, Maarschalk manages to afford the film a very polished veneer - especially in the day-lit exterior sequences.

Performances are adequate - no-one stretches themselves, nor do they hop unnecessarily on to the shame horse for a ride - and the editing is adroit, if somewhat music promo-like.

But there is nothing new here. Alas, THE UNFORGIVING simply reminds you of umpteen other films that have done it before, and better (and even some of them aren't very good).

4 Digital Media's screener disc is a rather rudimentary one; one which is not likely to represent the final DVD available from retail stores as of 28 March 2011.

The screener opened with the film's 70-second trailer, which did a fair job of accurately conveying the main feature as a slickly produced, well-shot but vacuous torture porn effort.

The remainder of the disc consisted of the film only - no menus, extras etc. The retail disc is also set to include a Behind The Scenes featurette.

THE UNFORGIVING was presented in 16x9 widescreen on this test disc and looked very good. Deep colours, natural blacks, sharp images: everything seemed to be in order, and the transfer did a good job of retaining the film's MTV/Tony Scott-esque music video colour schemes.

English 2.0 audio was a tad quiet in terms of dialogue but punchy enough whenever the bass-heavy score kicked in.

At the end of the day, THE UNFORGIVING offers nothing new in an already over-populated sub-genre. It looks slick but that's all I can offer: everything else is nondescript, even down to the rather staid violence (surely the raison d'etre here).

Those who absolutely need to know what happens can stick around for a so-so conclusion with mildly diverting moral implications.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Momentum Pictures Home Ent
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
Back