Captivity Review

Captivity is a straight forward horror film, with a lot of elements relying on the swerve of plot structure in the middle. The story is about a celebrity that is growing tired of being famous, who is targeted for kidnapping. She is confined to a room with some odd traps, and it is a little bit like Saw in this presentation, however it finds it’s own feet sure enough. Jennifer, our main character, finds out that there is someone in the room next to her and the two start to form a bond. The two then find a way to enter the same room, and through desperation they have sex.

This is where the plot thickens as we find out that our captive male isn’t exactly captive after all.

Here is a trailer for the film Captivity:


If I were famous and had a chance to get actresses to sleep with me, or if I just were able to get into some sort of situation with famous people I’d like to somehow meet Elisha Cuthbert. At least that’s what I thought when I was watching this movie, because I guess she’s like my on screen crush. I don’t think she’s that great of an actress, but she has that “it” factor that gets me riled up inside. So I immediately threw logic out the window in favor for her character in this film.



The first half of the movie involves the kidnapping and the love scene ZING! However, the real meat of the film is in the second half where we get nosey police investigators chopped into pieces, and gore, blood, and disaster all tied in. We also find out that Jennifer isn’t the first girl to get kidnapped, bedded, photographed, video taped and ultimately killed. This collection of “snuff” material, really relies heavily on the audience being a little smarter than usual, and maybe even a fan of the film “Vacancy” among other notable “snuff” references.

The movie seems a little slow in the beginning, as it is trying to set up the desperation of being kidnapped and being alone. However, the movie really takes things to the next level in the third quarter, and never lets up. You get really emotionally involved at times, and the blood effects are well done. The whole thing really starts to get the main characters into a panic, as we get revealed the plot twist, that you probably didn’t see coming.

To say that Captivity is just torture porn, is to give a discredit to how deeply engaging some of the underlying aspects are. In fact, this film says a lot about celebrity worship and society in general. It even rails against the porn industry, although all this could be just how I interpret the film, and it is not based on anything concrete. Take that with a grain of salt of course. As a stand alone horror film, Captivity does a good job of creeping you out, without showing you a whole lot of skin. I won’t reveal what I necessarily mean by that, because if I do, I’ll mess the twist up for you. I recommend Captivity in the same manner that I recommended the movie Vacancy in an earlier review. The two seem to rely on the same sort of desperation and action, however, where Vacancy was straight forward and relentless, this film is more subtle at times and you really have to pay attention or you might miss the turns. Captivity is an above average horror film, although it still gets lumped into the torture porn category due to its overt marketing of…well…torture.


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