Director: Teddy Grennan
Writer: Teddy Grennan (Screenplay)
Starring: Bruce Dern, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Eric Nelsen, Robert Longstreet, Joshua Brady
Plot: When a nature photographer explains to the Police how she fought her way out of the Watchatoomy Valley, they dismiss her crazed and violent story as a meth-induced nightmare. But when they discover that she’s telling the truth, it’s too late.
Runtime: 1 Hour 17 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Ravage starts as nature photographer Harper Sykes (Dexter-Jones) is recounting the events which left her in her condition, which sees her stumbling upon a group of rednecks torturing someone.
Harper finds herself captured by the group, with Ravener (Longstreet) looking to put her in part of their twisted games, only it turns out Harper knows how the handle herself, with a mix of her escaping and preparing to get out of the valley she is trapped in.
Thoughts on Ravage
Characters – Harper Sykes is a nature photographer, her work is respected around the world, with her latest search for a long thought extinct species finding her in the Watchatoomy Valley, where she witnesses a crime, trying to expose the truth finds her needing to use her own survival skills to try and survive from the killer lurking in the valley, always showing her abilities to stay ahead of the game. When it comes to the other characters, we have Ravener, who is leading the hunt for Harper, most other characters don’t get much time, usually setting up an incident for Harper to find herself in.
Performances – Annabelle Dexter-Jones is brilliant to watch, be it her cold deliver in the story of the events, the action her character goes through and the way we see her constantly showing the calculated mind rolling. We do get a small appearance from Bruce Dern, which doesn’t steal the spotlight, while Robert Longstreet, brings all the seedy evil character to life.
Story – The story here follows a photographer that stumbles upon a meth murder, finding herself needing to show her survival skills to fight back against an evil. This story does give us a revenge style that we have seen before, one where the female character shows strength the criminals didn’t believe they could have, the revenge style is similar to the ‘I Spit on Your Grave’ without the same awful start, it does feel very formulaic, until we get the shock of what happened to Harper, as we know from the opening she is left in a hospital because of the events of her ordeal.
Thriller – The thriller side of the film comes from seeing how Harper is fighting back, each scene is slow build in tension, though we know we are waiting for the mega explosive moment.
Settings – The film leaves us in the remote valley, where Harper must learn to adapt to this area.
Scene of the Movie – The shock reveal.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It does seem slightly too formulaic.
Final Thoughts – This is a by the book thriller that does everything right and is saved by the shocking reveal in the final moment of the film.
Signature Entertainment presents Ravage on Digital HD 5th October
