Towers
& Smythe is supposedly a soulless corporate consultancy shingle where
downtrodden Derek Cho plugs away, but it makes no sense to have them
foreclosing on private homes and planning legal strategy for criminal law
cases. Basically, they are a catchall for whatever evil doings might be
perpetrated by men in Brooks Brothers suits. Ironically, recent events make it
painfully clear the least ethical businesses in America are actually film
studios, but that might hit too close to home. In any event, logic is supposed
to go by the wayside when a crazy inhibition-lifting virus breaks out. The
sharks of Towers & Smythe find themselves under so-called quarantine, but
it is really just an invitation for Purge-style
bedlam, sans the hollow social commentary in Joe Lynch’s Mayhem (trailer
here), which
opens this Friday in New York.
Poor
Cho is the one stuck telling Melanie Cross Towers & Smythe has no intention
of working with her to prevent foreclosure on her house (again, this makes no
business sense). What comes around, goes around quite quickly, when he learns
his rival has set him up to take the fall for a mishandled client shortly
thereafter. Just as Cho is being escorted out of the building, the ID-7 virus
hits. As fate would have it, Cho was the one who developed the legal strategy
that resulted in legal immunity for the ID-7-infected, which is the sort of
work he would never be doing at a company like Towers & Smythe.
In
an effort to contain the loose cannons, Cho is chucked into the basement with
the trouble-making Cross. A grudging alliance is quickly forged and the two are
soon wreaking havoc on T&S’s property and client list. However, old man
Towers figures ID-7 is a two-way street and therefore dispatches his goons to
whack Cho and Cross, all of whom really have lost their moral-ethical inhibitions.
Basically,
Mayhem is the horror-comedy version
of The Raid, in which Cho and Cross
fight their way up the building to the penthouse boardroom, floor by floor. On
that level, it is a smashing success. Even though our protags are definitely
out for payback, most of their kills are largely committed in self-defense.
To
his credit, Lynch is not shy about drenching the film in blood and attitude. No
sir, he is not. Yet, Mayhem really
works because of immensely charming chemistry of its leads, Steven Yuen and
Samara Weaving. It is just impossible not to root for these underdogs and hope
their budding romance works out, even when they are killing and maiming with
wild abandon.
Let’s
put it this way, there is so much meathead fun in Mayhem, it will rekindle your 1990s enthusiasm for the Dave
Matthews Band. Cho is a fan, so you’d better be too. Frankly, it really isn’t
horror per se (and it sure as shooting isn’t “post-horror”), but it probably
helps if you have a fan’s tolerance threshold for on-screen blood and ruthless
sense of humor. Recommended for everyone who enjoys sensitive coming of age
dramas and online cat videos, Mayhem opens
tomorrow (11/10) in New York, at the Cinema Village.
