How sad is this?

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Yes, finally a horror flick I can rate more than 4 or 5 at maximum! This is quite a bloody film, lots of violence & terror. The question you have on your mind from the start is exactly WHEN she will be able to turn the tables around and give her tormentor the treatment he so deeply deserves... and precisely WHAT that deserved punishment will be. Of course, comparisons with "I Spit On Your Grave" are inevitable. You won't be disappointed ! Definitely recommended. Note that this is decidedly an over 18 movie. NOT for kids! 8/10.

This is a strange film because even though it's good and it takes a different look at the kidnapping genre, it just doesn't quite work. What the writers give the audience is a journey through the dark side of human trafficking. When Eve's captor comes back to the basement room she's being held in a few days has passed. As he apologises for his late arrival Eve grabs a brick she's worked free and beats the man bloody. While he fights consciousness, she undoes the lock to her chain and chains her captor. She quickly runs through the house and out the front door... She finds she's stranded in the middle of a desert, with no other house in sight. There are no keys in the van parked outside. The phone isn't working. And as she searches the house for food and clothes she finds Polaroids of other girls. When she confronts her captor and threatens to kill him he tells her that she will be killing them too. This then sets the pair on a road trip to free the Polaroid girls.This opening sequence has some interesting camera shots, for instance, there's the scene where she's pulling the telephone cord trying to find the receiver. It's not until the phone falls onto the floor that you realise the camera is on the phone. There are also a few interesting camera angles which help to create a disturbing and disjointed atmosphere. However, not all of the shots work, but it is nice to see a director trying to do something different. There's also a lot of shaky camera work when it isn't even needed. Most directors use quick cuts along with the shaky camera to build excitement. However, in the scene where Eve has beaten Phil to a bloody mess and he hasn't got the strength to move, Cravioto incorporates this technique... and it doesn't work. It would have been better to slow it down. Have Eve search for the key. Show Phil coming too. Eve still searching. Phil groggy with blood running down his face. Eve pulls the keys from his pocket as he reaches out to grab her hand. Eve shakes his grasp of easily and locks his leg into the chains. But hey, that's just me.However, not everything goes to plan as the pair go from one girl to another. The inventive thing the writers have done here is to have the story unfold along the way. I will say this, there are some twisted and people along the way. It's also here that some of the elements and characters don't appear or feel realistic.I think the reason this film doesn't work is that the director and writers were trying too hard to do something new and original and you can tell. A lot of these little things distract the audience from the movie and the story. This isn't good as you want to keep the audience involved and entertained.As for the acting, both of the major actors are excellent in their portrayal of their characters. Though I do prefer Tyson's coolness in the face of adversity bad guy. He plays Eve just right to stop her from killing him. There maybe a chance to escape and rectify this problem. It's this matter-of-factness which gives the character a chilling feel. The rest of the cast also do a great job though the first girl Eve tries to rescue does appear to be your standard stupid screaming slasher chic... though thinking about it this could have been satire... especially in the way she's dispatched.If you like films like I Spit On Your Grave then you may enjoy this film. It is worth at least one viewing if you're a revenge fan and the story is different enough to carry you through all the niggling little flaws and issues.

I know that most movies are fiction and that we are not only supposed to not believe what happens on screen, but we should also not expect the people nor their environment to conform to what occurs in real life. But that never stops us from hoping and wishing that the characters would just do what normal people would do. Or do what we believe they SHOULD do.This movie started off so strong then it took a turn toward what-the-heck-is-this-ville. The movie starts off with a woman escaping her captor who had her locked in a basement in the middle of nowhere. She gets the better of him but then has nowhere to go because the phones don't work (big surprise) and she doesn't have the keys to the van outside. She finally musters up the courage and the weaponry to demand the keys to the van to do what? To escape? To go to the police? No. To go round up the other captured girls because that makes the most sense. That's exactly what traumatized escapees do.The movie was a tale of revenge. I don't begrudge the movie for being about revenge, I just couldn't get over the timing and the method of revenge. Later we see why the movie creators took the immediate vigilante/savior approach but to me it was a case of trying to be too clever. Every movie has to have a twist. Too often vengeance movies sloppily put it all together. Either the motive for revenge is silly or the person seeking revenge is unlikely or the method of seeking revenge is unrealistic. The motive here was solid but as far as the person and more still the method... really wasn't in the plausibility ballpark. In all cases it detracts from the believability which detracts from the overall movie. This was a "I Spit on Your Grave" type with far less character, style and logic.

"Escape is just the beginning"I thought "Reversal" was rather disappointing. This has absolutely nothing to do with horror as a film genre. That it represents the horror of networks where mainly young girls are being abducted and afterwards being abused in an inhuman way, is perfectly clear. The thought that this also occurs in reality, is a repulsive fact which I experience as being horror. "Reversal" (alternative title "Bound to Vengeance") distinguishes itself from other rape / revenge films by omitting the rape part completely. The insinuations are present, but are not explicitly shown. At the beginning you are immediately in the middle of a kind of revenge movie mixed with a heroic rescue mission. But otherwise it's just a soulless story solely made to shock. Showing the atrocities inflicted by individuals to others, merely serves as a way to test our tolerance.The moment a brick hits the face of the sadistic serial rapist Phil (Richard Tyson also known as the drug dealer Cullen Crisp from "Kindergarten Cop"), it means the redemptive end of months (or years) of imprisonment for Eve (Tina Ivlev). An average person would quickly flee and call 911. Except Eve. After finding some Polaroid's (Guess it's the 80's) of other victims, she makes an agreement with the psychopath. He'll show Eve the other locations where the other girls are located. In exchange Eve will drop him off at a hospital, to take care of his battered, bloody face.Tina Ivlev made an impression on me. An acting performance that goes beyond sheer fear and revenge. In a convincing, realistic way she shows how she must choose between self-preservation and self-sacrifice. The transition from victim to executioner occurs without realizing it, and the roles are reversed within the shortest time. Phil is (briefly) reduced to a helpless, pleading heap of misery. Even Richard Tyson delivers a brilliant performance as the maniac doing his weekly round along dilapidated, filthy barely livable shacks where several victims are locked up in chains. But his resilience is superhuman. The manipulative Phil, however, isn't easily beaten up to a jelly and tries to confuse Eve over and over again and tries to trick her into feelings of guilt. He's in any case a creepy guy and you're all the time wondering whether he's the person in charge of the whole operation or as he claimed at the beginning just a messenger boy.I'm not really a fan of exploitation films and I don't necessarily need to see movies as "I spit on your grave". "Reversal" remains a terrible movie to watch, full of disturbing and disgusting images. Despite everything isn't brought explicitly into the picture, one can imagine the miserable conditions and the cruel treatment the victims endured. Unfortunately, this film offers no more than a vague idea about yet another immense organization larger than Eve can apprehend and again the assertion follows that she isn't aware of what she's getting into. Furthermore, it's the umpteenth film with a teenage girl soaked in blood and running around in her underwear.The entire film is a succession of perverse disclosures located at different addresses. It looks like a kind of tourist tour with human madness as a central theme, which ultimately leads to the (really predictable) denouement. Although the story isn't much of a deal and unbelievable at times, somehow it's ominous enough to hold your attention. Unfortunately, the flashbacks about better times and the neon-colored images are tiring after a while, and you long for the showdown to see how it actually runs off for Eve. A film that is recommended only for the real fans of this sub-genre.More reviews here : http://bit.ly/1KIdQMT