Chained (2012)

Chained (2012) – Bob, a cab-driving serial killer who stalks his prey on the city streets alongside his reluctant protégé Tim, who must make a life or death choice between following in Bob’s footsteps or breaking free from his captor.

Directed by Jennifer Lynch (daughter of legendary director David), Chained stars Vincent D’Onofrio as a taxi-driving serial killer named Bob, who early on in the film kidnaps a mother (Julia Ormond) and her young son Tim (Evan Bird). Bob decides to keep the boy and dispose of the mother. Over the years Bob continues his killings while Tim, now older (played by Eamon Farren), is groomed to become his protégé  Bob decides to call him Rabbit, and uses him as his unwilling domestic slave.

Bob leaves in the morning, and returns in the evening, sometimes with a victim. But Rabbit is never able to leave the house, so neither can we as the viewer. We just wait for Bob to return.

It’s not all bad news for Rabbit though. Over time, he is granted the right to study physiology along with various other freedoms, such as no longer being chained to the house. And when Bob brings home a young woman for Rabbit, he’s expected to follow in his ‘father’s’ footsteps. But will he go through with it or has he secretly been plotting another attempt at escape? When he tries to escape for the first time, Bob catches him and chains him up like a dog.

Chained is never a gorefest, and by keeping the murders largely off-screen for the most part this is very effective, as the horrific sounds ensure that the audience imagines the worst anyway. But it is so dark in its tone and themes that it received the commercially restrictive NC-17 rating in the US. I believe cuts were made so it could see some kind of release, and here in the UK it was rated as an 18.

Opting to move away from the more torture-porn (I still despise that term) style of movie and focusing on the relationship between Bob and Rabbit is a very smart move from Lynch. Vincent D’Onofrio creates a character who appears to care for the boy, yet is capable of violence towards him at a moment’s notice. He delivers a powerful and chilling performance that really gets under your skin, not least because he doesn’t portray Bob as an outright monster. Eamon Farren as Rabbit just about matches D’Onofrio in the acting stakes, and puts in an equally terrific performance. We spend most of the film watching these two, and it’s success is due to how good they both are. It was devastating to watch Evan Bird in the beginning as the young boy clueless and crying, and I must mention his brilliant performance.

The nature vs nurture themes of the script are both intriguing and provocative and Lynch pulls off a handful of inspired but devastating moments, such as the brutal cut that sweeps away Rabbit’s entire childhood in one fell swoop (when Farren takes over from Bird). Chained asks some interesting questions about abuse and the effects of it on children. For instance, can a child be moulded into a monster and if not, what is it that prevents said child from taking those steps into darkness. I always enjoy something that is thought-provoking and a little different. Chained certainly fits that bill.

As IMDB states in the trivia section, some viewers complained that the ending of the film felt rushed and tagged on. Jennifer Lynch said that the ending made more sense in the script, but due to time and budget constraints, it wasn’t able to be executed properly. This is what costs the film a higher score from me. I liked the fact they tried to throw in a curve ball and catch the audience off guard, but it just felt out of place and unnecessary. It doesn’t ruin anything as such, it just didn’t add to my experience and I would have preferred it to end about 15 minutes earlier. That said, Chained is an excellent watch, and whilst I have only seen one of Lynch’s previous efforts (Surveillance), I now want to check out her earlier films and can’t wait to see what she does next.

Posted by Tysoncarter182 on March 28, 2013

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