- Directed by Jonathan Milott, Cary Murnion
- Written by Ruckus Skye, Lane Skye, Nick Morris
- Stars Lulu Wilson, Kevin James, Joel McHale, Robert Maillet
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTD6ZXH7Xqc
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s an action thriller where the victim ends up being as dangerous as the villains. And speaking of villains, Kevin James is very good his first time ever as a bad guy here. The gore, action, script, and cast were all top-notch.
Spoilery Synopsis
Becky recounts what happened to the police. She pretends not to remember. Credits roll.
Two weeks earlier…
We get parallel shots of Becky in a fight at school and a bunch of thugs in a prison fight. We then see life in prison and life in high school; it’s essentially the same but without the orange uniforms. Becky gets in her dad’s minivan to go with him, while several of the skinhead Nazis are loaded into a prison transport. She and her father don’t get along for some reason. Meanwhile, the prisoners escape.
They stop at their country home, but Kayla and Ty are staying for a while, which annoys Becky. Becky’s mother died, and Kayla is the almost-new stepmom. They announce their engagement, and Becky’s not happy about it and goes out for an angry walk.
The doorbell rings and Kayla answers it. It’s Dominick, one of the Nazis. Apex, the giant baddie, is lurking around outside and lets Kayla escape. Meanwhile, Becky sees other men in the woods. Becky watches through the window as the men shoot Ty’s dog.
Dominick goes through a bunch of stuff in the basement, looking for something, but he doesn’t find it. We’ve seen that Becky has the item he’s looking for out in her treehouse. Dominick tortures Becky’s father until she produces the key he wants. Becky goes and gets the key, but before she can take it to the bad guys, Dominick shoots her father. She stabs him in the eye with the key and runs away. He has to cut his own dangling eye off.
Cole corners Becky in the treehouse, but he says the wrong thing, and she decides to fight back. She stabs him to death with a ruler and coloring pencils. She pounds it through him, inch by inch.
Meanwhile, Kayla works on talking to Apex, who might not be as bad as the others. Dominick overhears, and the two have a discussion. Elsewhere, Becky starts setting up traps.
Hammond finds Cole’s body and also Becky; he pursues her through the woods. He corners her on the dock, but she’s ready for that. She motorboats him to death. Apex, on the other hand, grabs her. He doesn’t want to hurt any more kids and lets her go. He walks off into the woods.
Becky lures Dominick outside and hits him with a car; the On-Star system detects a crash and says “Help is on the way.”. Inside, Kayla and Ty cut loose their bonds. Dominick gives a “we can be villains together speech” to Becky. She sets him on fire, but that doesn’t stop him. As he strangles her, he finds the key around her neck.
Dominick points his gun at the no-longer-needed Becky, but is tackled by Apex, who doesn’t want her dead. Apex is insistent, so Dominick shoots him. As the two men battle, Becky gets the tractor out of the barn and heads their way. Dominick is not getting up after that.
Apex tries to make a heroic speech, but Becky just shoots him in the head. Kayla and Ty come out and sit with Becky until the police arrive.
We cut back to the police interrogation from the introduction. They know what she did, but she plays up being a traumatized teen who doesn’t remember what happened.
Commentary
What does that key go to?
Kevin James is Dominick in his first villain role. He’s very good at it. That is a very well-trained dog.
It’s a bloody, gory, messy film. Maybe not so much horror as revenge-thriller, but it’s certainly got enough gore to qualify. We definitely liked it.