Director: Sonny Laguna, Tommy Wiklund

Writer: Sonny Laguna, David Liljeblad, Tommy Wiklund (Screenplay)

Starring: Hanna Oldenburg, Ralf Beck, Torbjorn Andersson, Niki Nordenskjord, Cheryl Murphy

Plot: Emma is kidnapped and imprisoned by a trio of psychopaths.

Runtime: 1 Hour 18 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Rape Revenge 101

Story: Animalistic starts as ambassador Emma (Oldenburg) is finalizing a deal with a major oil company, in a country she doesn’t know, she picks up a taxi driven by Shirley (Nordenskjord), this is the beginning of her nightmare. Abducted by Jim (Beck) and Pete (Andersson), Emma will learn her fate if she doesn’t follow the rules.

Here she is raped, beaten and humiliated by her captors as she learns who is in control, waiting for her chance to escape her ordeal, taking her own vengeance on her captors.

Thoughts on Animalistic

Characters – Emma is a businesswoman from Australia, she has just completed a big deal and heading off to a press conference, the deal isn’t the most popular and then she is abducted by three psychopaths. she is raped, beaten but she won’t go down without a fight. Jim is the ring leader, he wants these women for himself and lets the other have them when he is done with them, he does seem to have a normal life away from this world too which means he would have something to lose if they got caught. Pete is the man working with Jim, he is mentally challenge which leads to Jim taking advantage of him, making him an easy target for Emma while she escapes. Shirley is the one that brings the victims to Jim, she gets her taste as her taxi seems like the one that would help a stranded young woman.

Performances – When it comes to the rape revenge genre it is always down to just how much the victim character goes through, the leading lady in these must be a strong actress and she is for the most part, it can always be difficult to do more than scream at times. Ralf Beck does hit the psychotic side to his character at times. Torbjorn and Niki don’t get as much screen time that gets the job done without struggling.

Story – The story here follows a young woman that is abducted, raped and beaten by her captors before finding a way to escape to get her revenge, we know how this story unfolds and the only thing we wait for, is to see how the victim gets their revenge. The big aspect of the story is that we could have added in a twist about the abductors being involved in the protest against her deal, but we missed a trick with this one. If you do like the ‘I Spit on your Grave’ films, you will go on to get what you want out of the film’s story.

Horror – The horror from the film comes from just what Emma must go through at the hands of her attacks.

Settings – The film stays in one location, the cabin where Emma is taken too, it creates the isolation away from anyone visiting and the fact she is a businesswoman visiting the country, she doesn’t know where to go.

Special Effects – The effects in the film are great uses of practical effects when it comes to the attacks with shocking moments throughout.

Scene of the Movie – Wood chipper.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Not much we haven’t seen before.

Final Thoughts – When it comes with to the rape revenge genre it is always going to be difficult to do something original because it is formulaic, it does check the lists for the fans and that is all we can ask for.

Overall: Simple Rape Revenge Movie.

Rating

Director: Jim Wynorski

Writer: J Brad Wilke, Mike MacLean (Screenplay)

Starring: Michael Madsen, Rachel Hunter, Rib Hillis, Terri Ivens, Chris De Christopher, Shandi Finnessey, Michael Swan, Noah Blake

Plot: Two piranha/anaconda hybrid creatures hunt down the scientist who stole their egg and a film crew; making a slasher film in the jungle.

Tagline – Part Snake! Part Fish! All Killer!

Runtime: 1 Hour 26 Minutes

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

Verdict: True Trash

Story: Piranhaconda starts when scientist Lovegrove (Madsen) takes a new snake egg of a piranha & anaconda hybrid, the snake heads off into the jungle island in search of it killing anyone who gets in its way. Elsewhere on the island Mile (De Christopher) is directing a low budget slasher movie with diva leading lady Kimmy Weston (Finnessey), add into the mix the local gang that are kidnapping people for ransom, we have three groups that are being targeting by the snake who must now work together.

Thoughts on Piranhaconda

Characters – Lovegrove is the scientist trying to study the eggs of a piranhaconda which only disturbs them from their home, he somehow manages to elude the snake unlike anyone else on the island and fills in information. Talia is one of the kidnappers, she is the right-hand woman and that is about it. Jack is the stuntman that is dating one of the behind the scenes woman while batting off the interest of the leading lady, he kind of becomes the reluctant hero. Rose is the crew member that is starting to date Jack who gets jealous of the leading lady. We also have the director, the diva star and the kidnapping locals.

Performances – Time to rant without insulting, Michael Madsen has been in Tarantino movies, how did he end up in this? He is clearly her for some form of pay check as he looks like he just turned on at the resort one day and was given the role. Rachel Hunter fills the quota of just having models in the film, she does absolutely nothing. Rib Hillis is the strongest of the performers in this film with Terri Ivens doing the second best, even though I did enjoy watching the diva actresses played by Shandi Finnessey. Most of the performers are women in bikinis running around Hawaii.

Story – The story follows unlikely group of people needing to work together to escape a giant hybrid piranha anaconda mix, superfast, super hungry and super aggressive. This is simple enough and for sure this is easy to watch if that was all we had, we don’t we have terrible character development as we spend half the story seemingly meeting random people on the island that get selected to be the next victim, usually hot women. The science behind the creation is loose to say the least and to say the storytelling process is smart would be an insult to anyone.

Action/Adventure/Horror/Sci-Fi – The action gives us the shoot as many bullets at a creature whose skin just bounces bullets off with a couple of explosions. The horror would come off as the creature feature concept which has always worked well, but not this time. The sci-fi side of the film give us the idea of an unknown creature causing the problems.

Settings – The film is set in Hawaii which looks pretty, but the reality is that it could be any jungle island.

Special Effects – This is a sci-fi level movie, we know the level of special effects and this is particular weak because it just uses the same technique for every kill which gets boring quickly.

Scene of the Movie – Most of Jack solo scene, because he knew what the tone of the movie is all about.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The kill move.

Final Thoughts – This is one of those truly bad low budget films, it has weak acting, effects and storytelling with only one actor seemingly understanding the tone of the movie.

Overall: Not even so bad its funny.

Rating