Review of Chained (2012) by Ola G — 01 May 2014

Nine-year old Tim and his mother Sarah (Julia Ormond) are brought to the cinema by his father Brad (Jake Weber) who urges them to take a taxi instead of a bus when going home. After the show, Sarah wants to call a taxi but one is already arriving. They enter it but instead of bringing them home the driver Bob (Vincent D'Onofrio) abducts them into his home. There he kills Sarah and makes Tim his slave for his housework, threatening him with violence if he does not obey, giving him the new name "Rabbit". Tim tries to escape later, Bob even encourages him to run away but then Tim is afraid to do this when he notices that nobody can hear him far away from the city. Bob continues to be a serial killer abducting young girls, raping and killing them at his home. Nine years later, Tim (Eamon Farren) has become a teenager and is still caught in Bob's home doing the housework and burying his dead victims. Bob acts as a kind of stepfather making him read books about the human body so that he learns how it works. He also shows him a picture of Tim's father who married a new wife and has another son with her, making Tim clear that he has nobody else other than Bob to care for him. Bob wants to make Tim his protégé. But will Tim/Rabbit be able to carry on the legacy?

"Chained" is a 2012 Canadian psychological thriller-slasher film directed by Jennifer Lynch. Chained had its world premiere at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal on 5 August 2012. Anchor Bay Entertainment released it direct-to-video on DVD and Blu-ray in the US on 2 October 2012. Although there was money budgeted for a director's cut, they had to use it in other areas. Lynch still wants to do a director's cut eventually. The film was originally rated NC-17 by the MPAA for "some explicit violence". Lynch appealed the rating, but it was upheld. She later edited the film to achieve an R rating. Kevin Carney of Anchor Bay said that films with comparable violence were rated R for arbitrary reasons, and Lynch said that her films were targeted with NC-17 ratings for their authenticity and intensity, which, according to her, "rewards a casual attitude toward violence." Lynch later said that NC-17 had failed, as audiences still associated it with the old X rating. The NC-17 scene that was cut is included as a special feature.

Lynch stated that she would have preferred to release the film under its working title Rabbit, but the studio would not comply. Some viewers complained that the ending of the film felt rushed and tagged on. Jennifer Lynch said that the ending made more sense in the script, but due to time and budget constraints, it wasn't able to be executed properly. Despite the fact that Jennifer Lynch changed the script from it´s original structure, there´s still a strong feeling/aura of a "Torture Porn" movie in my book. A genre made famous via movies such as "Saw" and "Hostel". Not my genre I must say. In a way "Chained" is "plain" in the storyline, but the acting is strong from both Vincent D'Onofrio, Eamon Farren and the cute Conor Leslie as Angie. D'Onofrio has made several horrific characters throughout the years and Bob is equally fitting the actor. As said the ending does feel rushed and the twist is not that exciting. I agree with David Hughes of Empire who rated it 2/5 stars and described it as "plenty nasty but singularly lacking in clever new twists on a weary genre." and Matt Glasby of Total Film who rated it 3/5 stars and wrote, "Ripped from the headlines, Lynch's disturbing portrait of a serial killer is let down at the last by a conclusion that clumsily unpicks everything we've invested in." Personally I liked Lynch´s "Surveillance" much better than "Chained" as the former had a better and more unique story.