Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Brandon Veracka The Tortured is just another awful movie in the "torture porn" horror subgenre. It is NOT a horror movie; aside from the contemplation of pain, there is nothing scary about this lousy B-movie. It features a major plot twist which serves as the surprise ending, however, if you don't see this twist coming a mile away then your I.Q. must be around 50.Overall, the plot is familiar but it has a few holes, the setting is nice (Vermont), the cinematography is decent enough for a movie as bad as this, but that's where the praise ends. The acting has its faults, as neither protagonist really portrays themself as somebody anyone would identify with; we don't feel for them, and therefore we don't care what's happening to them, nor what they're doing. Additionally, their reactions to certain events don't feel genuine.This movie generated only one emotion for me, and that was total disgust. It possesses no redeeming qualities. Furthermore, I can't help but ask myself how anyone could actually like this and/or enjoy watching it. Sure, I've seen other movies with more needless and pointless violence, but that's beside the point. If the point of a movie is to entertain (last time I checked, it is), then "The Tortured" fails in every aspect. While it doesn't deserve a one out of ten, it gets no higher than a three from this horror-savvy reviewer. Skip it and watch something else; if you're a horror fan like me, you've likely seen junk like this before. There are hundreds of far better, real horror movies to sink your teeth into.

amidalasky This is bad even for torture porn. It starts out promisingly enough, with Jesse Metcalfe understandably freaking out about the abduction of his small son, but once Erika Christensen shows up, she promptly drains any semblance of liveliness that this outing may have had (which, admittedly, wasn't much). Christensen is, with rare exceptions, simply a lousy actress. And she's uncommonly awful here. Neither she nor Metcalfe -- who isn't bad, just bland -- is even slightly believable as parents so vengeful that they'd kidnap and torture the man (they think) murdered their son. Oh yeah, that parenthetical means that at the end there's a shocking twist. Not. As others have noted, you see it coming from a mile away: the boy's parents may have seized the wrong guy, because there were TWO prisoners on the transport van they are able to hijack with idiotic ease (a fact they apparently weren't aware of -- yeah, right), and somehow we're supposed to think they might mistake the guy they abduct with the man they saw for months on end during his trial.Matters aren't helped by a truly stupid script and mostly lifeless direction. Of course, people aren't going to watch something like this for the script, acting or direction: they want to see a revenge fantasy played out, which the movie doesn't even deliver due to the aforementioned "twist." The movie swiftly becomes quite boring, and yes, I am including the torture scenes in that assessment. This is not guilty-pleasure bad. It's just bad.

chow913 This movie is just plain silly. The premise is so simple and the "surprise ending" so predicable. And actions of the characters implausible. It offers nothing.The plot: Just in case you're still curious about seeing this film. Yuppie doctors have their young son kidnapped and murdered by a child serial killer. The killer pleads insanity and gets a light sentence. This in and of itself could at least made an interesting Lifetime network movie but instead it's just rushed into the first 15 minutes of the film. We feel absolutely no emotions for this couple or their son since we really don't know anything about them. Their loss is merely the set up for the premise.The vengeful couple plan to hijack the killer's prison transport and take him back their house to torture him. Since they're doctors they know how to keep him alive.The hijack results in a crash but the couple succeeds in their plan and bring the already seriously injured killer back to their basement.Here's where the movie also misses out on an easy opportunity. Movie serial killers are generally interesting. They have a gimmick, 'Manhunter,' 'Seven,' 'Saw,' 'The Crimson Rivers.' Serial killers are interesting. But not this one. The injured killer is unable to speak and we learn absolutely nothing about him. Not a thing other than fact that he's murdered several children.After 60 minutes of boring R rated torture scenes. Yes, R is boring. True horror fans have already seen the Ilsa trilogy, 'Riki Oh' and 'Cannibal Holocaust.' Anything with a mere R rating is boring by our standards.Predictably the killer escapes, but only to hang himself there on the spot leaving a suicide note begging the couple's forgiveness. If he's so injured, how did he manage to hang himself to death? Spoiler warning!!! And now the predictable twist. The tortured man wasn't actually the killer. The couple later sees on the news that the prisoner transport was actually carrying two prisoners. The serial killer and a tax evader. They've been torturing the tax evader. We see in flashbacks that the real killer actually followed the couple back to their house and was hanging around their home the whole time stealing their food. He hanged the man and wrote the suicide note to frame him.Wait a minute! That doesn't make any freaking sense! Why was the serial killer hanging around the house at all? He could have simply killed the couple and hid out from the police in their house! Or he simply could have run like hell and escaped to Canada! Why was the killer even sticking around? It only increased his chances of being caught! Why was he reduced to stealing food when he could just kill for it? He's a serial killer! So what happens now? What does the couple do? They simply go on the lamb to evade the police! There's NO scene where the couple realizes in horror that they've been torturing an innocent man and feels any guilt. Or any guilt that they freed their son's killer! Aren't they the least bit concerned that the serial killer is still on the loose? I guess not since the killer was living in the bushes outside their house for a whole month and never even harmed them once! So that's the disaster which is 'The Tormented.' I can think of no redeeming value in this film what so ever. It's not even fun to riff or make of or base a drinking game around.Just in case you're still curious about the production quality and acting in this film... it's torture.

Tom The movie grabbed my attention and for that, it at least gets a 5 out of 10. But is it really that good? For fans that love a nice little torture flick, this one does just that. The story flows really well from beginning to end.So the bad guy kidnaps a couples child and tortures him to death. The grieving couple in return kidnaps the bad guy and tortures him in return. Both the wife and husband agree to do this by the way willingly.What exactly does this accomplish by the way? I understand you feel a lot of pain grieving for your lost child, but to become a monster yourself and go through the same procedure as what the kidnapper did.....well, you are no better off than the kidnapper. I'm sorry to say.For pain and torture and for those that enjoy movies like this, you won't be disappointed.