Demdike@Cult Labs | 12th October 2017 06:05 PM | Here's what i said about The Victim a few years back The Victim. (2011)
Michael Biehn's directorial debut is marketed as a piece of grindhouse cinema, and to me it actually lives up to its billing. There are no missing reels or fake scratches on the film, always a sign of film makers thinking they understand what makes grindhouse cinema yet they are so wrong. What we get with The Victim is a tense, scuzzy, gratuitous, occasionally nasty, fast moving slice of exploitation with an edgy, twisty turny plot that keeps you interested.
The story involving a stripper who witnesses the murder of her friend by two police officers in the woods, eventually hiding out at Michael Biehn's isolated cottage to escape from them, is nothing new to the genre, but it's made with an infectious enthusiasm from all involved. For a first stab at the directing lark Biehn does well in my opinion. It's not perfect by any means, a driving scene is overlong for example, perhaps too many flashbacks, and a twist too many, but he manages to create an intense atmosphere and provide the viewer with a, for want of a better word, roller coaster ride of terror, sex and revenge on a minimal budget and small cast of mainly four people. |