- Directed by: Neil Marshall
- Written by: Charlotte Kirk, Neil Marshall
- Stars: Charlotte Kirk, Matthew Camilleri, Zach McGowan
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLcHUXwV18A
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
There’s a masked and disguised killer on the loose in Malta who does brutal work. It has a hint of the horror elements, but really it’s a sexy and violent murder mystery. The deaths are very bloody, a contrast to the beautiful people and settings. And the script is clever but flawed. We both thought it was entertaining, but had some issues.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on various shots in and around Malta. Someone in a black outfit climbs the ladder on the side of a building at night. They break in through a balcony and skulk around. The person in black watches as the man who lives in the house gets ready for a shower. Then the intruder slashes the man to death excessively. We pull back and see that the killer is a woman in a full-body BDSM suit.
Detective Claudia arrives on the scene. The chief explains the case to her; she’s never done a case like this before, so he assigns her to Detective Crawford as a partner. Also, the chief is her father.
Evie is on vacation in Malta, just arrived, and she gets an annoying taxi driver. She’s got a rich father, whose isolated country home she’s going to stay at, and an attitude. She listens to neighbor Diane and her boyfriend, Reese, arguing from quite a ways away.
Evie runs into Diane at the local store, and they talk. Meanwhile, the two detectives look at security footage of the bondage-killer; the killer is probably not one of the locals. Diane tells Evie about the murderer on the ride back home. Evie mentions that she just broke up with her girlfriend.
Back at the house, neighbor Reese invites Evie out for dinner tomorrow night. Evie notices that she can see through to their windows from her room and really likes what she sees.
Later, Diane and Reese talk about Evie’s rich father and how to get his money. Reese planned to seduce Evie, but she’s a lesbian, so that’s not gonna fly. They need to devise a new plan, so the next day, Diane goes to see Evie at her house. We get a flashback to Diane watching Evie’s stepfather, Mason, getting into the safe. She scopes out the lock on the safe as Evie gets dressed. Then Diane works on seducing Evie, which isn’t especially hard.
Reese goes to see some baddies about the money he owes, and the boss, Fabio, isn’t nice about it. Final warning. He’s got a week before the boss lets a henchman skin him alive.
The two detectives show up to question Evie, since she’s a recent arrival. They tell her not to leave the island. They go to Diana’s house right afterward. The police have found several similar murders in neighboring countries over the past few months.
Diane and Evie go out for dinner, and run into the annoying cab driver. The outing does not go well for any of them. When they get home, Diane learns the security code for Evie’s house entrance.
We cut to the killer’s point of view as she walks through a house with a big knife. It’s the annoying cab driver’s house, and she stabs him to death with one of Evie’s swords.
Diane and Reese argue about who’s seducing whom. Evie overhears Reese talking about needing money badly. When he threatens to mess up everything, she stabs him. That doesn’t do much, but then Evie shows up and they tag team stab him repeatedly in a messy fight. He dies hard.
Diane says they could just make Reese disappear and not mention any of this to the police. They wrap up the body and dump it in the ocean. We see someone is watching them from a distance. Then they make out in the hot tub as they wash the blood off each other.
In the morning, someone sends a video of them loading the corpse into their car last night. It’s blackmail for $100,000 worth.
The two cops get called to Madam Karmelina’s annual masquerade, as there was a report of someone dressed like the murderer showing up there. The two girls are there as well to meet the blackmailer. Everyone there is dressed sexy, so the murderer’s bondage suit doesn’t really stand out. The girls spot their pool boy, who must be the blackmailer.
Someone then follows the pool boy into the bathroom, kills him, smashes his phone with the blackmail video on it, and throws it in the toilet before leaving. The police jump into action, and the two girls rush to get away. There are too many deaths connected to Evie and Diana to be a coincidence.
The police return with a search warrant and soon find one of Evie’s father’s swords missing – clearly the murder weapon used on the driver. Diana calls Mason, Evie’s stepfather, about the trouble; he needs to come to Malta, which is exactly what Diana needs to get into the biometric locked safe. She also texts Claire, Evie’s former girlfriend and hears Claire’s phone ringing upstairs. Upon investigating further, Diana finds Claire’s head in a suitcase. Diana then decides to leave town– no, on second thought, Mason is arriving, and she can use him to open the safe.
Evie gets released under house arrest and goes home, where Diana is waiting for her. When Diana tells Evie that Mason is on the way, she is not happy.
After thinking it over, Detective Claudia decides that Diana is the serial killer and heads over there. She soon learns the truth of the matter– Evie is the killer. Diana and Evie play cat and mouse throughout the big house for a while until it all comes down to a– sword fight. Suddenly, Mason and Evie’s mother show up.
Evie confronts her parents about her motivations. Then she shoots them both. Evie runs away, leaving Diana alone with the bodies. Diana cuts out Mason’s eye, which allows her to open and rob the safe, full of lots of goodies and cash.
Detective Crawford arrives outside the house and finds what’s left. He has his people arrest Evie on the way to the docks. When the chief finds out that Evie killed his daughter, he rushes right over to the hospital where she is, with Crawford not far behind. The chief ends up getting shot, which makes Evie smile.
We cut to Diana, now with a new hair color and on an expensive-looking boat, as she leaves Malta for good.
Brian’s Commentary
There are numerous bloody murders, a head in a suitcase, and some extreme fights, but calling this one horror may be a stretch. It’s a sort of whodunnit, but we really don’t get many clues as to the murderer’s identity. In the end, it somewhat makes sense, but there are several plot holes that we both picked up on right away.
Still, it was interesting all the way through and was well shot and looked good throughout. Some of the actors’ accents were pretty bad, but that’s just the way some international films are.
It’s pretty decent, but not really horror.
Kevin’s Commentary
Definitely low on horror and high on the murder mystery drama. And sex. This one had me guessing right up to the reveal what was really going on.
So, they dressed up sexy and revealing and went to a costume party. Upstairs in the bathroom, the fully gimped killer takes out the blackmailing pool boy and destroys his phone with the video of them hauling out Reese’s body. Which only the two main characters knew about, so it had to be one of them? But no, because very soon, they are still dressed revealingly and leaving. Point one, that was way too little time to get in and out of that gimp rubber outfit. And point two, where did Evie have it stashed? Up her butt? I thought it was well made overall, but this and a few other points troubles me.
So overall, I’m going to say it’s very well made, well-acted, and well-directed. But I had some issues with the script.
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