[Bane]
Plot:Four women awake in an underground cell with amnesia. The women soon discover that they are part of a secret experiment with no obvious purpose. They are visited, one by one, by the SURGEON who cuts a four digit number into each woman s skin...the exact time he will return to kill them. Each woman must quickly piece together the dark secret behind the gruesome experiment and somehow survive the Surgeon's nightly visits of pain, torture and grisly murder.

Cast:Sophia Dawnay, Lisa Devlin, Jonathan Sidgwick.

My Thoughts:It was going well....until......

Review:"Bane" is the indie horror scene's latest attempt at the weird, the trippy, the grotesque, the cold, and the downright nasty. The movie takes the "Saw" approach in a small slight, with a group of people (all women), awaking to find themselves in some sort of twisted research facility. They are under the care of a mad doctor type, who has a gaggle of twisted, scary torturers/surgeons at his right hand.

The women don't remember how they got there, nor do they remember much about themselves. Their minds have been wiped clean. But why? By whom? And what does this all have to do with a vicious tentacled creature which stalks the facility's hallways? "Bane" is the kind of horror movie that takes time to get into. Originally, once it starts out, you kind of feel the movie is not headed in a good direction.

It kind of telegraphs cliches, and a possible conclusion of a "Saw" or "Hostel" nod. But then the movie slowly breaks away into it's own film, making sure to differ itself from both movies, and be it's own twisted monster. This is one of the few films I've seen increase the blood, gore, and carnage as the story unfolds more and more. Usually most horror movies pile on the blood and gore, and then flesh out the story, or the other way around.

But this movie will flesh out a few story segments, and then mix that with a gruesome death or two, and then continue on in that pattern. Pretty cool I must say. For an indie film, it seems low-budget in some areas, but pretty substantial-budgeted in others. The acting is pretty good also. The evil doctor looks evil, and gives the viewer a feeling of unease and worry when he performs his scenes. The girls in the film make you feel empathy for them, and really believe they are horrified by their situation.

The film also has some very clever underpinnings about human beings treatment of one another, and social behaviors. All of this ties in to who lives and dies in the movie, and also connects with the films finish. The blood and gore are at very high levels in this movie, and they escalate more and more as the film gets near it's conclusion. The story isn't very easy to follow, but eventually you get the hang of it. The story has a lot of twists and turns, and ins and outs.

It's certainly not the in-your-face story you usually get from indie horror, where you get everything served up to you on a plate, and know what's going on right away. But amongst all of this chaos with people dying, the sinister doctor, and the still unlocked secrets and reasonings behind his experiments, there's also two other plot caviats, which comes in the form of his mysterious male assistant, executioner, and a tentacled love-craftian-like creature which stalks the halls of the building.

The explanations of all and behind all of these things and characters make for a fantastic third and final act. But the film shoots itself in the foot when it breaks open the ultimate treasure chest. The reasoning and motives behind the experiments, and a secret which lies within the mind of one of the female characters.

It all amounts to what I felt was a cheesey and lazy final twist, and I really felt if the film had went in the direction I was hoping for it to go in, then it would've wrapped up quite nicely. But the final twist was just a bummer, cliche, and stale, and damaged what was I felt, a very awesome indie horror/gore flick. Looking past the cynical and easy-way-out ending however, I felt "Bane" was a good movie overall.

Positives:Good story which unfolds nicely along the way, lots of blood, gore, and splatter, good acting by most of the cast, very twisted bad guys, and some decent creature fx.

Negatives:The ending and big reveal just felt like the writer took the easy way out.

Overall:Three out of four stars.





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