The Tortured is just another awful movie in the "torture porn" horror subgenre. It is NOT a horror movie; aside from the contemplation of pain, there is nothing scary about this lousy B-movie. It features a major plot twist which serves as the surprise ending, however, if you don't see this twist coming a mile away then your I.Q. must be around 50.Overall, the plot is familiar but it has a few holes, the setting is nice (Vermont), the cinematography is decent enough for a movie as bad as this, but that's where the praise ends. The acting has its faults, as neither protagonist really portrays themself as somebody anyone would identify with; we don't feel for them, and therefore we don't care what's happening to them, nor what they're doing. Additionally, their reactions to certain events don't feel genuine.This movie generated only one emotion for me, and that was total disgust. It possesses no redeeming qualities. Furthermore, I can't help but ask myself how anyone could actually like this and/or enjoy watching it. Sure, I've seen other movies with more needless and pointless violence, but that's beside the point. If the point of a movie is to entertain (last time I checked, it is), then "The Tortured" fails in every aspect. While it doesn't deserve a one out of ten, it gets no higher than a three from this horror-savvy reviewer. Skip it and watch something else; if you're a horror fan like me, you've likely seen junk like this before. There are hundreds of far better, real horror movies to sink your teeth into.

This movie is just plain silly. The premise is so simple and the "surprise ending" so predicable. And actions of the characters implausible. It offers nothing.The plot: Just in case you're still curious about seeing this film. Yuppie doctors have their young son kidnapped and murdered by a child serial killer. The killer pleads insanity and gets a light sentence. This in and of itself could at least made an interesting Lifetime network movie but instead it's just rushed into the first 15 minutes of the film. We feel absolutely no emotions for this couple or their son since we really don't know anything about them. Their loss is merely the set up for the premise.The vengeful couple plan to hijack the killer's prison transport and take him back their house to torture him. Since they're doctors they know how to keep him alive.The hijack results in a crash but the couple succeeds in their plan and bring the already seriously injured killer back to their basement.Here's where the movie also misses out on an easy opportunity. Movie serial killers are generally interesting. They have a gimmick, 'Manhunter,' 'Seven,' 'Saw,' 'The Crimson Rivers.' Serial killers are interesting. But not this one. The injured killer is unable to speak and we learn absolutely nothing about him. Not a thing other than fact that he's murdered several children.After 60 minutes of boring R rated torture scenes. Yes, R is boring. True horror fans have already seen the Ilsa trilogy, 'Riki Oh' and 'Cannibal Holocaust.' Anything with a mere R rating is boring by our standards.Predictably the killer escapes, but only to hang himself there on the spot leaving a suicide note begging the couple's forgiveness. If he's so injured, how did he manage to hang himself to death? Spoiler warning!!! And now the predictable twist. The tortured man wasn't actually the killer. The couple later sees on the news that the prisoner transport was actually carrying two prisoners. The serial killer and a tax evader. They've been torturing the tax evader. We see in flashbacks that the real killer actually followed the couple back to their house and was hanging around their home the whole time stealing their food. He hanged the man and wrote the suicide note to frame him.Wait a minute! That doesn't make any freaking sense! Why was the serial killer hanging around the house at all? He could have simply killed the couple and hid out from the police in their house! Or he simply could have run like hell and escaped to Canada! Why was the killer even sticking around? It only increased his chances of being caught! Why was he reduced to stealing food when he could just kill for it? He's a serial killer! So what happens now? What does the couple do? They simply go on the lamb to evade the police! There's NO scene where the couple realizes in horror that they've been torturing an innocent man and feels any guilt. Or any guilt that they freed their son's killer! Aren't they the least bit concerned that the serial killer is still on the loose? I guess not since the killer was living in the bushes outside their house for a whole month and never even harmed them once! So that's the disaster which is 'The Tormented.' I can think of no redeeming value in this film what so ever. It's not even fun to riff or make of or base a drinking game around.Just in case you're still curious about the production quality and acting in this film... it's torture.

This shambling mess of a film is a true disgrace - to use the torture murder of a 6 year old boy in such a glib, throw-away entertainment driven way is a parlous utter travesty and these film-makers should be lambasted high and low.These tragedies do happen - to use them for such low brow entertainment is so utterly disrespectful I wonder how the film makers sleep at night.No exploration of the moral dilemma of inadequate justice, no development of the main characters, no meaningful examination of the impact of this behaviour on the torturers. Plot device garbage that contrives at every turn and then the obligatory 'twist'.I really enjoy extreme films that are well done but this heap of dung fails at every turn - bad lighting, jump moments, blood letting - is it too much to ask to actually make a film as opposed to a lame excuse in which to appease gore-hounds' desire for unmitigated torture.For a complex and truthful exploration of this harrowing subject of extreme loss through murder of the innocent, please watch the wonderful French film 7 Days that at least tries to convey some of the emotional struggle, the uselessness, the folly and the inadequacy of revenge in the face of incalculable grief and loss.

I have mixed feelings about The Tortured. On one hand, it accurately depicts the sorrow and anger parents go through when their child is taken from them unexpectedly. How far would someone go to avenge the death of their child? Unfortunately, the movie settles into a montage of torture sequences - each one more graphic and unpleasant than the last. After a while, you wonder how much is too much. The audience is forced to sit there and be a witness to the unimaginable pain inflicted on someone who may or may not be innocent of the crime they're accused of committing. I liked the twist ending (though in retrospect I should have seen it coming) but this is definitely a movie I will never watch again.