Captivity
By Cory Peynado, Blockbuster.co.uk

“Why do good things happen to bad people? That's the mystery.”

‘Saw’ started it, ‘Wolf Creek’ toyed with it and ‘Hostel’ just joined in – I speak of the almighty ass-strapped-to-a-hard-backed-chair torture film, and this movie has the same amount of hairs on its chest as all the others. There will be blood, there will be screaming and oh yes, there will be fear. Send the kiddies off to bed, get yourself a McVities biscuit and a cup of tea and relax… your about to have your worse night ever.

Ok so I got a little carried away there, but that’s just because I always get immensely excited whenever it comes to watching the latest scary movie. In this case even the title is enough get the heart pumping and the hand a little shaky. Elisha Cuthbert is the one in the chair this time, playing a hot young famous person (imagine that) who's plastered on billboards all over town, has her own perfume and lives her life in the public eye.

In this film Elisha’s character, Jennifer Tree, gets herself abducted at a party and is now being held captive in a small dark room. Whilst there, an unknown assailant subjects her to various mind-games and torture, pushing her to the very limits of her sanity. After some time she meets another victim who's being held in the next room. The two communicate through a vent, where they learn more about each other, and try to help each other through the ordeal.

Every now and then the assailant pops by and has a little more fun, forcing our desperate captives to become more and more unstable. This makes the burning questions even more torturous; who is this person? Why does he want them? How does he know so much about her and will they ever make it out alive?

All of this culminates into a shocking conclusion that provides all of these answers and more. Its not quite up there with Saw and Hostel in terms of story but it does carry its own weight in terms of hair-raising tension. The desolate and dark sounds and the eerie atmosphere never fail to hook you into the fear and for me this was made even worse as I had to watch someone so cute in such disarray.

People who hate these kinds of movies will not be converted by this one, but people who are fans will lap it up. It’s brutal when it needs to be and relentlessly tense when it doesn’t. I’d recommend this to the old school Horror fans, those who look at these movies and see them for what they are; just two hours of mindless spine-chilling fun.

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