A woman wakes up in a locked and barricaded room and she realizes she's handcuffed and chained to a man she's never met before. Another strange man appears on a TV screen and tells them they have to do certain things or they'll be deadly consequences. To anyone who has seen Saw (2004), this premise will seem familiar. This film, directed by Mark Gantt, is definitely leaning on that 2004 horror flick, which certainly paved the way for a lot of torture porn. There's some gory stuff here for sure, but Gantt's film isn't torture porn or at least doesn't lean as much into it.
Annie Ilonzeh (Chicago Fire and General Hospital) stars as Allison, an investment banker who lives in Los Angeles. She tried online dating, but it only resulted in bad relationships. In fact, she recently broke up with a guy who was a bit of a jerk. She'd love to fall in love, but it doesn't seem likely for her.
Charlie Weber (How To Get Away With Murder and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) co-stars as Jason, a hedge fund manager or some kind of finance guy who is worth $35 million and drives a red Ferrari. He's also had trouble dating. His last girlfriend cheated on him, so he's not in a good place. He'd love to find a match, but the film never establishes what it is he's looking for or what exactly would be a match for him.
Neal McDonough (Arrow and Suits) also co-stars as the Matchmaker, an unnamed, wealthy lunatic. If this was Saw, he would be the equivalent to the character of Jigsaw, played by Tobin Bell. Except, his behavior and attitude feel more akin to the Joker, either played by Jack Nicholson in Batman (1989) or Cesar Romero in Batman (1966).
It's supposedly due to him that Allison and Jason are chained together in a locked room with no windows. His sick game appears to be to put them through the ringer and through a bunch of twisted games with murderous results as a way of bonding them romantically. His goal is to connect them through shared trauma. The question of the film is if this is the Matchmaker's actual goal or if they're just toys or pawns to be killed anyway. Is he a psychotic cupid or just a psycho?
What's psychotic though is that anyone would think the romantic angle here would work. In Speed (1994), Sandra Bullock's character and Keanu Reeves' character were also two people locked into a confined space with deadly consequences by a maniac who communicated remotely. Bullock's character points out that relationships based on intense, often life-or-death, experiences never last. People might want to relate due to the shared trauma but it doesn't guarantee they would be a good match otherwise, but, besides this one shared trauma and the fact that they both seem linked to the finance industry, it's not clear exactly what bonds Allison and Jason. The idea that Bullock's character and Reeves' character were going to have a romance is basically a joke put at the end of that film. This film wants us to believe that a romance actually can spring from this situation, which is a bit of a tougher sale. The film could've built an actual romance but rather skips over it. With the exception of Ilonzeh and Weber being two very attractive people, their love story is hand-waived, but it didn't stop Gantt from exploiting both of their buff bodies in the buff.
Regardless, the thrill here is watching Allison and Jason navigate the dark maze in which they're placed. At first, it seems as if Gantt's narrative would be similar to The Escape Room (2019) in terms of the set-pieces. It is essentially that in certain respects, but, unfortunately, the set-pieces aren't as inventive or crazy. This might be a good thing because one could argue that given the possible romantic angle, having the set-pieces be over-the-top or as ridiculous as The Escape Room would have been contradictory to where this film ultimately goes.
Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert!
Not to say exactly what happens at the end, but where this film goes, it reminded me of David Fincher's The Game (1997). In no way is this film as good as Fincher's. Fincher wasn't going for some twisted romance per se, but the actual gamesmanship was more intriguing. Here, the game is lame and really feels that way.
Rated R for bloody violence, sexual content, partial nudity and language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 35 mins.
In theaters.