SYNOPSICS
Penance (2009) is a English movie. Jake Kennedy has directed this movie. Marieh Delfino,Jason Connery,Michael Rooker,Graham McTavish are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2009. Penance (2009) is considered one of the best Horror,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
A story of single mother Amelia, who turns to stripping as a means of making ends meet and winds up the unwilling subject of a grim purification ritual. When her friend, stripper Suzy takes a beating that leaves her unable to perform, she asks her to cover her latest gig. Reluctantly accepting so she can convalesce, she begins to grow uneasy when her driver takes her to a dark and remote location. Once inside, she finds herself imprisoned with a number of other unchaste women by a sadistic captor, Geeves who uses various torture methods to rid them of their impurities.
Penance (2009) Trailers
Penance (2009) Reviews
Torture Porn, and Not Even Good Torture Porn
Penance is an example of this decade's "torture porn" craze at its worst. Cheaply made, with largely unknown actors, the film lacks the creativity of films such as Saw, substituting shock tactics for originality. The story is nothing new. An innocent young woman is forced to become a stripper because of financial trouble, and ends up falling into the hands of a depraved religious fanatic. (I'm a humanist, and even I think this movie gives religion a bad name.) What follows is an hour long wallow in torture and extremely graphic sequences of genital mutilation, both male and female. What makes the movie particularly disgusting is its implicit acceptance of the moral logic of the villain. The protagonist is a victim of circumstance, not a "bad" stripper like the others, who are depicted in the most stereotypical, degrading way possible. At times, this approach pushes the film into outright misogyny. Furthermore, Penance relies on a video taping framing device ripped off from better films like REC. The result is a cheap looking digital feature that adds nothing to the overall story. The only good points of the film are the scenes with Michael Rooker, which unfortunately comprise only ten minutes or so. One wishes the film had been focused on his character instead.
On made it halfway and quit
They don't get much worse than this. Plot makes no sense. Characters wouldn't all be that stupid. This is a "found video footage" type movie and you are supposed to believe there are many cameras and everyone's first priority, even at their own peril is to videotape things. Your life is in immediate danger, you need to stop and videotape. Please.... If you came for the nudity, it's not worth it. If you came for the violence it's uninspiring. And there really is not much nudity or violence anyway. 1 star but deserves less.
I guess some things I will never understand.
This movie strikes me on so many levels as absolute trash. I wish the lead actress was at least attractive. Although, she did have nice breasts... which was the only redeeming quality of this flick, gratuitous nudity. Especially in the case of one Eve Mauro. That girl is absolutely gorgeous. Smokin' hot! I think I would probably watch anything with her in it, at least once. But alas, I digress from my original reason for writing this. "Candyman", "Dead Man on Campus", "Warlock" and Brandi Svennings dad all in one movie? They obviously did not invest wisely of their spoils from their actual roles in real movies... That, or the director/writer/producer caught and filmed them all in some suck-off man orgy together and blackmailed them into making this horrible movie. Actually a documentary on fecal matter would probably be more entertaining than this movie is... If you're a guy and thinking about watching this movie, punch yourself in the balls... really hard. That pain is as enjoyable as this movie is going to be for you. If you're a girl, rinse your eyes with vodka. Same goes... I will never understand how something as bad as this gets made. Along the line, people kept giving this the green light. HOW? The actors and actresses agreed to be in it. WHY? Distributors agreed to release it. Again I ask, in F's-name WHY? The economy is steadily slipping, but it seems the movie industry will throw copious amounts of cash to whatever idiot comes along. (I bet the screenplay was written in crayon.) I think "Clerks" cost a little over fifty grand to make. No actors, no sets and lastly, no color. Taking all of that into account, this movie at the very least, probably cost a cool quarter mil. WTF?!?! Are you serious?!?! In this day and age, Jake Whatever-his-name-is should be lynched for wasting that much money. Like rappers and athletes buying gold and platinum jewelry/teeth/wheels... but that's a whole other rant... I give it two stars. One for each of Eve Mauro's wonderful breasts. Nothing else.
Graphic, Decent Film
This film lures its viewers down into an graphic and disgusting abyss around the role of being a stripper, and attempts to terrify strippers and pre-strippers away from the lifestyle. Shot in documentary style, we are taken into a dark world that crosses between stripper life, trickery, and dark religion. A redeeming quality of the movie is how it gave the impression that certain risks aren't worth the reward and that desperation can bring us to threatful situations. Certainly not an original plot, but the movie was decent enough for viewership. The acting was alright by a mostly anonymous cast. Michael Rooker's character should have been predominantly featured as the character hadn't been seen in most of the film. He played his role well of a psycologically disturbed man who twists morality, righteousness, and penance to teach a lesson to the women that chose to sell their body. This movie is also not for the weak at heart and gets very graphic. All in all, I'll write it off as nothing special. You can give it a look though, but if you have a better film to watch, you should slip that in instead.
Movie Review: Penance (2009)
This film is loosely inspired by the notorious Graeme Stephen Reeves also known as "The Butcher of Bega". He is a former gynecologist and obstetrician charged in relation to alleged sexual and indecent assaults and genital mutilation of all of his female patients. The film stars Marieh Delfino (from Jeepers Creepers 2) as Amelia. Amelia is a single mother who is trying her best to care for her sick child by taking on a few side jobs of being a exotic dancer. Thanks to her friend Eve played by Alice Amter (Big Bang Theory's Mrs. Koothrappali) she learns the ins and outs of being a stripper and reluctantly follows in her friend's footsteps. Up until this point of the film, there is LOTS of nudity and lots of shaky cam footage & dialogue. That being said, we continue following our lead actress as she falls into a dancing gig. This gig leads her and us into a debauched and visceral hellhole, into the arms of a deranged madman played effortlessly by Graham McTavish (from The Hobbit trilogy & RAMBO). Graham brings Graeme Reeves to life in a most disturbing way. Most of the scenes in the film take place in a what is believed to be a asylum hospital of sorts. This is where the film gets to the meat of it. The claustrophobia that is created alongside the brutality & gritty realism that is seen in the Hospital scenes are ones to make any man or woman cringe. Marieh Delfino does an AMAZING job at making the viewer feel she truly is in danger of her life & fighting to survive. It's quite unsettling in some places to watch. If you watch the film, you'll know what I am talking about. If you can make it past the 30 minute mark, then you are in for a ride of disturbing proportions. I'd also like to mention that two cameos of Horror's favorite bad guys are thrown into the mix. Tony Todd and Michael Rooker are placed in the film as Henchmen of the deranged Dr. Reeves. That being said, this film is combination of both torture porn and found footage horror. The film in itself is really hard to watch in some instances, mainly due to the prolonged build up of the characters and the obvious torture & brutality of the women. It's a film that after watching it you definitely wanna see something else. It's a film that makes the audience feel uncomfortable and dirty. If you enjoy the grittiness of torture inspired HOSTEL-like films then check this out.