Review of Strangeland (1998) by Scott T — 29 May 2014

Ah where do I start with a 6 % rotten rating movie like this! I FUCKING LOVED IT! It was one of the first movies that opened my mind to psychological horror. It even opened myself to movies like Silence of the Lambs and Seven.

Before this I found those two movies to be a yawn because they were not Freddy gore full movies. Strangeland has the torture and believe it or not, not as gory as it is made out to be. The torture of the victims in the movie is shown but not too much blood is used and you are made to intensify the torture in your mind as the viewer.

Captain Howdy the horror villain in a way has a Freddy personality here with crazy mind blowing reasonings for his torture of his victims who never actually kills them. One happens to die but of cardiac arrest.

Its almost like their put through torture and are tested much like the later Saw series. The midpoint of the movie even includes an identity switch between Captain Howdy and his so called normal self Carlton Hendricks which he would later point out being in a society of no imagination or creativity which you of course would assume that so called normal name comes from in his view.

The whole recovery and identity crisis has a nice Psycho II feeling to it like what Norman Bates was going through. So despite what many say this one of my favorite psychological and pre-Saw horror movie to grace us at the end of the 20th century.

Also has a quite an interesting take on questioning our society and the limits on our cultural tolerations, for a horror movie.