SimplyScripts Discussion Board
Blog Home - Produced Movie Script Library - TV Scripts - Unproduced Scripts - Contact - Site Map
ScriptSearch
Welcome, Guest.
It is March 29th, 2024, 4:23am
Please login or register.
Was Portal Recent Posts Home Help Calendar Search Register Login
Please do read the guidelines that govern behavior on the discussion board. It will make for a much more pleasant experience for everyone. A word about SimplyScripts and Censorship


Produced Script Database (Updated!)
One Week Challenge - Who Wrote What and Writers' Choice.


Scripts studios are posting for award consideration

Short Script of the Day | Featured Script of the Month | Featured Short Scripts Available for Production
Submit Your Script

How do I get my film's link and banner here?
All screenplays on the simplyscripts.com and simplyscripts.net domain are copyrighted to their respective authors. All rights reserved. This screenplaymay not be used or reproduced for any purpose including educational purposes without the expressed written permission of the author.
Forum Login
Username: Create a new Account
Password:     Forgot Password

SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board    Reviews    Movie, Television and DVD Reviews  ›  Chained (2012) Moderators: Nixon
Users Browsing Forum
No Members and 9 Guests

 Pages: 1
Recommend Print
  Author    Chained (2012)  (currently 11322 views)
James McClung
Posted: March 15th, 2013, 1:32am Report to Moderator
Of The Ancients



Location
Washington, D.C.
Posts
3293
Posts Per Day
0.49


Wow. I don't think I could've picked a better double feature tonight. Obviously, one knows going in that two films titled For a Good Time, Call... and Chained are going to be polar opposites. I just didn't know how polar.

Chained is a horror movie/psychological thriller written and directed by Jennifer Chambers Lynch (Boxing Helena, Surveillance), daughter of David, based on a screenplay by Damien O'Donnell. ...Weird. I thought all films were based on a screenplay. Why the two writers didn't share credit for the screenplay is peculiar to say the least. Anyway...

Bob (Vincent D'Onofrio) is a serial killer posing as a cab driver in order to pick up his victims. At the beginning of the film, he kidnaps a nine-year old boy, Tim (Evan Bird), and his mother (Julia Ormond) after the two of them have just come out of a movie. After killing the mother, Bob claims Tim as a slave and dubs him Rabbit. Cut to (presumably) ten years, Rabbit has grown into a young man (Eamon Farren) whom Bob is now grooming to follow in his footsteps.

Chained is one UGLY film. Beyond grim. I honestly felt awful after watching it. I have to say, I think it's the closest a film has ever come to emulating Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

Surprisingly, the violence is minimal. While what is shown is indeed gruesome, much of it takes place offscreen. There's a lot more of victims crying and struggling and characters walking out of rooms covered in blood. Still, just based on the premise alone and the relationship of the characters, there is always some form of violence going on, usually in the form of psychological abuse, and the threat of physical violence is ever looming. And it never lets up. Even the act of offering a character a candy bar is perverse here.

D'Onofrio truly makes up for his hokey performance in The Cell in this film. His thankfully un-hammy performance here is nothing short of Oscar caliber. I can't imagine how he must have felt going home at night after the shoot was over. I think a lot of actors would've fallen apart. Bob is hideous and deeply disturbing whether he's committing murder, shouting abuses, attempting to act as a father figure, or screaming in his sleep.

I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of the serial killer genre. Most films make serial killers out to be really pretentious and have them act like their violence is an art or a job that's meant to be taken really seriously. More often than not, it comes off as completely ridiculous. I can't imagine the character of Bob is all that much closer to reality but I bought him. From the moment he speaks, you can tell there's something seriously wrong with this guy's head, even when he hasn't said a word of exposition.

Also, the film never explains why he does what he does. The question comes up and he answers it and the answer is ugly indeed. But it's also evasive. I don't think it can be said that we ever find out the truth.

Farren's performance is also phenomenal. Extremely subtle but very nuanced. The character, despite having little dialogue, is quite complex and Farren captures that complexity perfectly.

I think Lynch's direction overall is effective. The film doesn't feel as lurid and exploitative as most of its contemporaries do. If anything, it seems like the film was designed to make the audience feel horrible. The events speak for themselves and aren't overemphasized with intrusive artifice. That's not to say Chained is cinema verite style. Lynch just knows how to create an atmosphere without taking it too far.

At the same time, the film doesn't really have all that much to say. I think there's a fair amount of examination in regards to the cyclic nature of abuse and some in regards to how victims internalize their slave status. But other than that, what you see is what you get. Nothing is really clarified in the end. You'd think the daughter of David Lynch would obscure it up but no such luck, apparently.

As for the ending, the penultimate climax is truly intense and cathartic then just mere minutes before the credits, they blow it. I actually read up a little on the ending after watching the film. Turns out the script fleshed it out a lot better but time constraints didn't allow for the filmmakers to get it right. I don't know what's in the script but I have to say the grand finale was ridiculous and totally unnecessary.

That said, I don't think the film is completely ruined as a result. At the same time, I don't really know if that's a good thing. While extremely well done, Chained is totally devoid of entertainment, contains not a single drop of humor, and basically feels like an assault on the viewer. If the film was meant to disturb the audience, it's definitely a success.

I don't know how much I can recommend this one. I honestly don't think some people will be able to stomach it. Certainly not teenage gorehounds into Hostel and Saw. I think this has more in common with films like Martyrs and Irreversible. I think one needs to think about how they feel towards that kind of cinema before they venture into this one.


Logged
Private Message
Dreamscale
Posted: March 15th, 2013, 10:26am Report to Moderator
Guest User



This one's in my Netflix que.  I'll post my feedback after I've seen it, but it will probably be over a week away.
Logged
e-mail Reply: 1 - 8
James McClung
Posted: March 15th, 2013, 11:38am Report to Moderator
Of The Ancients



Location
Washington, D.C.
Posts
3293
Posts Per Day
0.49
I think you'll like it based on how you felt about Surveillance. Chained has a lot of the same flavor although a lot less twists and turns.


Logged
Private Message Reply: 2 - 8
Pale Yellow
Posted: March 15th, 2013, 11:42am Report to Moderator
January Project Group



Posts
2083
Posts Per Day
1.40
I'll make it my Friday night entertainment tonight
Logged Offline
Private Message Reply: 3 - 8
James McClung
Posted: March 15th, 2013, 11:48am Report to Moderator
Of The Ancients



Location
Washington, D.C.
Posts
3293
Posts Per Day
0.49

Quoted from Pale Yellow
I'll make it my Friday night entertainment tonight


Entertainment. Right...

In all seriousness, it's easily the most legit horror movie I've seen in five years. The rest of the genre to date has been pretty worthless.


Logged
Private Message Reply: 4 - 8
DarrenJamesSeeley
Posted: March 16th, 2013, 4:00pm Report to Moderator
January Project Group



Location
Michigan.USA
Posts
1522
Posts Per Day
0.31
I'm convinced that Jennifer Lynch makes visually good films but somehow the endings get mucked up and nearly dismantles the entire picture. Back when Boxing Helena came out, I thought it was an interesting surrealist film...and then HAHA it was just a dream! But that film also suffered from the bad press regarding the Kim Basinger pay-or-play thing at the time.

Surveillance was a nice little indie. I had a rough time with the twist ending myself, not really sold on it. But I liked the actors. I haven't seen Hiss.

But I caught Chained. It is disturbing as all out. I thought it was also effective for what it was. You actually root for teen Rabbit. But the ending had a twist that made no lick of sense, (highlight for possible spoiler) and I suppose watching too much of The Murder Channel (ID Discovery) tainted my views. After all, if a person goes missing, don't the cops first look at persons/places closer to home? And if the final shot is true, and Rabbit becomes the new "Killer Bob" (sorry! Can't restrain myself) - wouldn't the authorities KNOW about his ordeal unless Angie died anyway  If it were up to me, I might have ended it either without the endinbg we are handed, or just end it with Rabbit at the doorstep.

I think Lynch is a little underrated, and satisfactory overall when the films wind up VOD/DTV. Looking forward to her next film.


"I know you want to work for Mo Fuzz. And Mo Fuzz wants you to. But first, I'm going to need to you do something for me... on spec." - Mo Fuzz, Tapeheads, 1988
my scripts on ss : http://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?m-1095531482/s-45/#num48
The Art!http://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-knowyou/m-1190561532/s-105/#num106
Logged Offline
Site Private Message AIM YIM Reply: 5 - 8
Dreamscale
Posted: March 28th, 2013, 12:02pm Report to Moderator
Guest User



OK, peeps, just saw it last night.

DAMN!!!!  This thing is truly depraved, brutal, and downright ugly.  LOVE IT!!!  Ha!!     Obviously not for everyone, and probably not for many.

Great review, James.  You nailed it.  D'Onofrio gives the performance of his life.  Too bad movies like this never have a shot for any award noms.  Actually, everyone brings their A game here, and I truly believe Jennifer Lynch may be the reason, as everyone in Surveillance also brought it bigtime.

I wish things had changed up a bit before they did, as the continual monotony of poor Rabbit's life was hard to take.  I really enjoyed the direction it went when Bob took him out on his first "hunting" trip, and what followed was both intense and much more mainstream, in terms of entertainment value.

The final "reveal" is not good.  I also read about what Lynch said about how it just didn't work on film.  They only had a 14 day shoot in Saskatchewan, CAN, so money must have been extremely tight.  Too bad, as this deserved a much better ending then what we were left with.

Julia Ormond looks like she just got a big breast job before filing her small role.  Gina Philips continues to look great - why can't someone cast her in a good movie, in a starring role?

For low budget, I thought the FX looked pretty damn good.  Yeah, a James said, much of the violence is OS, but we do see the results and it's pretty intense to me.

If you like your horror "real" and your violence brutal, you really can't go wrong here.  But then again, calling this horror really isn't appropriate completely.  It's also far from the norm in the level of the performances featured here.

Recommended!
Logged
e-mail Reply: 6 - 8
ajr
Posted: March 31st, 2013, 10:30am Report to Moderator
Old Timer



Posts
1482
Posts Per Day
0.28
James / Jeff,

You are both correct, money was indeed the issue here. I know the original LP, who was not retained once the shoot was forced to move to Canada. I also know they were looking at actors like Kyle Gallner, which apparently never materialized...

Anthony


Click HERE to read JOHN LENNON'S HEAVEN https://preview.tinyurl.com/John-Lennon-s-Heaven-110-pgs/
Logged Offline
Private Message Reply: 7 - 8
Andrew
Posted: April 6th, 2013, 5:56am Report to Moderator
Old Timer



Posts
1791
Posts Per Day
0.32
Caught this last weekend, and originally wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Part of that was induced by one of the most absurd endings to an otherwise good movie. I understand that retrospectively they realised that ending didn't work, which makes me wonder why they didn't film an alternative. Although judging by Anthony's post above, it may have been simply a case of a lack of green. It does raise the question to me, however, that somebody should have seen that ending and been a little conservative, and said, look, let's give ourselves 2 options, 'cos that ending in the screenplay could fall a little flat.

But to return to my original point, there's been a seeping realisation that this movie did hit me and was pretty damned excellent. There are a multitide of issues (mostly touched on already) but ultimately an awful lot was achieved on one limited set and a great couple of lead performances.

It's definitely a recommendation from me.


Logged Offline
Private Message Reply: 8 - 8
 Pages: 1
Recommend Print

Locked Board Board Index    Movie, Television and DVD Reviews  [ previous | next ] Switch to:
Was Portal Recent Posts Home Help Calendar Search Register Login

Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post polls
You may not post attachments
HTML is on
Blah Code is on
Smilies are on


Powered by E-Blah Platinum 9.71B © 2001-2006