People
say they love the environment, but do you know who actually lives out in the
wilderness? Freaks, that’s who. Nonetheless, a woman running for her life in
the middle of nowhere can hardly be choosey about where she finds refuge. Proudly self-identifying as a retro
grindhouse movie, Michael Biehn’s The
Victim (trailer
here) opens
this Friday in New York.
In
Victim’s world, women like Annie and
her friend Mary can only be one thing: strippers. They are not bad people. They just enjoy the fast life. Unfortunately, when they start “partying”
with two crooked cops, Mary is killed in a Very
Bad Things style mishap. Of course,
Cooger the narc and the super-connected Henderson now have to shut up Annie,
permanently.
Tearing
through the woods, she ends up at the cabin belonging to Kyle, a smart, but
seriously twitchy middle-aged anti-social loner. As you might guess, this dude seems to be
hiding something. Yet, against his
better judgment, he becomes Annie’s protector.
At least she is nice enough to throw herself at him during quiet moments.
The
truth is The Victim’s big twist is so
deliberately obvious, it almost forgets to reveal it. Perhaps even more surprisingly, the film is
not nearly as violent as one might expect.
Kids still have no business watching it though. Not a slasher film nor torture porn, The Victim is basically a coke and
moonshine fueled cat-and-mouse thriller with a rather sinister shoe constantly
poised to drop. Yet, it sort of works on
its own sleazy terms.
Kyle
the misanthrope is basically the kind of role writer-director Biehn now
specializes in and indeed he does his thing with plenty of grizzled attitude. He certainly looks like a cat to avoid,
whereas Jennifer Blanc and Danielle Harris certainly look like strippers, for
what that’s worth. However, their
frequent flashback scenes ring with the thudding sound of unintentional comedy. Yet, that is nothing compared to some of the
cheesy over-produced pop songs inappropriately strewn throughout the
soundtrack.
