Captivity

Jennifer Tree (Elisha Cuthbert) is a famous cover girl and fashion model who has appeared on the cover of hundreds of magazines and who possess beauty, fame, money, and power. She is the girl every woman wants to be and every man wants to be with. But someone is stalking her and one night, at a charity event, she is drugged and abducted. She wakes up in a basement cell without any clue to where she is or who took her, but soon she has her first encounter with her abductor, who forces her to watch the torture he has inflicted on other victims while he subjects her to something similar. Jennifer's only hope appears in the form of Gary (Daniel Gillies), another abductee, who is held captive in the next cell. Together they try to defy their abductor and escape, before he can torture them both to death.

Captivity is not a movie for the faint of heart. It features some pretty gruesome torture scenes which are quite unpleasant to watch. If you are into that, this might be a movie for you, but for me it was just nasty. The creators of the movie have tried to dream up something that can really creep out the viewer and they succeed, but that is its only purpose. At one time the bad guy makes a smoothie out of body parts from earlier victims and forces Jennifer to drink it. The only reason for the scene is to make the viewer gag as it does not seem to affect Jennifer much afterwards.

The plot was not very good or believable either. The only real twist is too obvious and the basement where most of the movie takes place has a layout that would baffle any architect. It is riddled with small rooms and duct ways that do not seem to have any purpose, except as a setup for shots.

If I had not forced myself to watch the whole thing, I would have stopped this movie after fifteen minutes. This is very far from being what I find appealing. I cannot fathom why anyone would find this a good movie or why anyone would want to watch this kind of gore. I am fully aware that some people like to be grossed out, but this is way too much in my opinion. The only reason that I do not give it zero stars is because I have reserved that grade for when I have to watch two hours of fireplace video.

The video is delivered in 1080p/AVC at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. This is probably this release's only redeeming feature as it is not all horrible. In fact there are several scenes that look quite nice, as long as they are day shots. Several close-ups of particularly Cuthbert look really good, with excellently detailed and textured skin and colours both here and in other shots are quite vibrant and natural. Unfortunately most of the movie takes place at night or in dark basements and here there are several problems that detract from the experience. Blacks are deep, but they tend to be a little crushed and have some artefacts and there is also quite a lot of banding in the shift between blacks and greys. DNR and edge enhancement are fortunately not something that have been used noticeably.

When as much of a movie's scenes occur in darkness as is the case with Captivity it is imperative that the blacks are under control and look good, but unfortunately this is not the case with this movie.

This release comes with an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track, but it almost might as well have been 2.0 stereo. There is hardly any use of the rear speakers, except for a few of the gory scenes and in those they are barely used. The subwoofer is primarily used for shock effects and the musical score without ever being pushed very much. All sounds actually seem very tinny and flat, including the dialogue, which is often very low and hard to make out, a problem only worsened by the nonexistent subtitles. Perhaps it is on purpose the dialogue is low, forcing you to turn up the volume, and thereby enhancing the shock effect of a sudden loud bang or noise, but that is a cheap and lousy source for horror.

Once again Optimum Home Entertainment has decided to release a Blu-ray without any extras (or subtitles for that matter). In this case I do not mind so much, as I would hate to have to use more time on this release, than the length of the movie, but for those who actually like the movie, it is a shame.

About a week ago my wife and I were discussing the worst movies we had ever seen and we came up with quite a few bad ones, but if we were to have the same discussion today, I would not hesitate to nominate this one for the number one spot. Rarely have I had so much trouble finding a single redeeming quality in a film. I guess this kind of horror movie has its audience, but I am definitely not one of them. Combined with below average video, bad audio, and a total lack of extras, watching this can only be categorized as slightly less painful than having your teeth pulled out.