Torture Room (2007, Review)
aka Pledge of Allegiance
Director: Eric Forsberg
Cast: Lena Bookall, John Forgeham, Barry Ratcliffe, Chad Nell, Louis Graham
Echo Bridge Entertainment / NTSC Region 1 / Not Rated / 16×9 Widescreen / Surround 2.0 / Color / 80 Minutes / PURCHASE
Terrorism. That single word can send waves of fear into our hearts and send shivers down our spines. The viral videos of extreme jihadists beheading Americans and its Coalition members will forever be imprinted in our minds. But what if the roles were reversed? Can America conduct terrorism and still produce the same effect? Snakes on a Train writer Eric Forsberg explores this concept and runs wild with it in all kinds of directions. The vision of a Middle Eastern individual being held and subjected to the horrors of torture like a Coalition captive are the things of fantasy for gun-ho, shoot-now-ask-questions-later pro-war Americans. Torture Room is a major step forward from Forsberg’s previous work and does have a demented outlook into what people are capable of committing when pushed far enough in the wrong direction.
Anoush leads a semi-normal American life living in a tiny apartment and working as a cocktail waitress in a stripper joint. Two men force their way into her apartment and kidnap her. She awakens in a cell with nothing but a toilet, raw meat and a cot. Mr. Green, the voice behind the wall speaker, reveals that she’s being held because of her connections to Middle Eastern men whom she surrounds herself with. After pleading ignorance of any information, she is put through a series of torture tactics: psychological, starvation, mutilation, claustrophobia and long periods of isolation. The whole reason behind these intense torture rituals is to brainwash Anoush into believing she is an American informant, brought back to be reprogrammed and to betray her Middle Eastern friends with information on terrorist activity.
Trying to withstand 80 minutes of constant horrifying humiliation and hoarse yelling is almost too much. Anoush is put through hell; there is not a single scene letting up on her vigorous abuse. Torture Room is meant to deliver a message – we can play the this game too. There are subtle and blatant pro-war symbols throughout the duration and this film alludes to the extremes of the Right Wing hammer that hides behind closed doors but everyone knows it’s there. I thought perhaps I should have invited a few of my hillbilly, Confederate flag waving buddies over so they could enjoy the naked Anoush having her nipple sliced off.
For the most part, the movie watching experience came off a bit corny. Right around the end of the second act and the climax were the only highlights, with various torture methods and the decay of Anoush’s sanity. The audience endures the suffering with her, both with the mundane scenes and with the tortures. If you can’t tell, Torture Room is a love/hate film with me; I find it copiously bland and unoriginal most of the time, but I also find an appealing side to it with Anoush’s hell. I can tell you this, the worst about Torture Room is Mr. Green’s melodramatic performance. It reeks of cheese and rat feces as John Forgeham (a veteran actor) hams up the small screen with a stench you can smell for miles.
Rental shelves is where Torture Room belongs, as apposed to sitting on your shelf collecting dust after the initial viewing. I can’t dog the film but so much, for there are qualities I like and that must be expressed or explained well enough to at least give it a break and a viewing shot. The conveyed message is powerful and the ending result is a short static shock. Torture Room isn’t all negative as it does produce a positive, proving that a director of one bad movie can man up to direct a decent film.
