Review of Kidnapped (2010) by Tim B — 10 Feb 2012

Once again, the Spanish have hit hard with another genre classic in Kidnapped. I'm not sure what it is with home invasion flicks that are speaking to me so well recently (Them, Inside, Mother's Day) but Kidnapped is another to add to the list of my favorite flicks.

I think I have to stray from these for a while after viewing Kidnapped because although I loved it, it ruined me while I was watching. These movies speak to me in the sense that they are fully possible and there are people as messed up as this in the world.

Shit like this happens every single day and Kidnapped made sure I was reminded of that by making the scenarios more and more dire as time went on. Sure the subject has been tackled a thousand times before but the care and artistic flair behind this one was something that could not be beat.

I have to hand it to Miguel Angel Vivas for the way he shot this one. A lot of steady-cam and handheld shots made to look like one take (a la Hitchcock). It was so raw that I felt like I was in the room watching the events play out and not being able to do a single thing about it.

I'll also applaud the man for his use of split screen to convey multiple scenes that would eventually meet each other. Talk about suspense! Bravo! The cast was also top notch. The fact that I've never heard of any of these people before helped bring the realism home.

Fernando Cayo was extremely sympathetic as the dad trying to save his family. Manuela Velles gave a brave performance given what her character goes through. Loved her. Ana Wagener also comes through as the mom.

Dritan Biba gave me the most chills out the villains and was way to natural with his performance. All actors gave bang on performances and kept it grounded which, in turn, made me believe the dire situation all the more.

I'm not sure whether I loved or hated the fact that the more I watched this, the more I realized this would not get any happier. I'm going with the former since that's the reason I watched something like this to begin with.

I will say that not all the characters pulled the right moves in my book of survival but I can't really say that "that's what I'd do in that situation" either. It just means I was involved way more.

That's one thing I love about people calling characters 'idiots' in horror because of a certain move. They'll never truly know how they'll 'act' until they're in that scenario and something tells me a lot of them would cower and cry before trying to make any move.

Where was I? Ah, yea. Add to this a score that worked and never surpassed the imagery, gore that wasn't overt but damn surprising and a quick look at Stockholm syndrome (always a fascinating subject) and you get another one of my genre favorites that could only come from another country these days.

I say see it and see it now, just make sure you're not depressed beforehand.