THE STORY:  This movie is a good example of the paradox inside the Inferno. The actors aren't very good, it has a cheap look all about it and some of the plot developments are just downright silly. Still, it was a great watch! Other movies with better production values and actors might not fare as well as this flick. It all comes down to this...was it fun to watch. Yes, it was, partly because of the story, and partly because of the stupid crap.

The movie starts with a a weird montage of scenes including a woman in a straightjacket, crying. Then we move into the city. A serial killer is on the loose. He's been whacking women left and right. Why? Well, we find out when he kidnaps a lawyer, Emma Santiago, off of the street at night as she goes for a jog. Emma awakens in a cellar, bound and dressed in a weird cheerleader outfit. Her captor, a pudgy harmless looking guy, tortures his victims until they beg for death...then he kills them. His prerequisite  is all of his victims at one time tried to commit suicide. The madman figures by killing them he's doing some kind of good work. Emma tried to kill herself when she was 14.

Well, Emma attempts an escape and fails. To punish her, the captor cuts off one of her fingers. But Emma is a plucky chick. She tries again and makes it out of the house only to be hit by a car right outside. She wakes up in a hospital but the police don't believe her story. Even when she takes them to the house where she was held. It seems the killer is Dr. Leon Uraski, the city coroner! Uraski plays innocent, has somehow hidden his basement of torture and has a logical excuse for all of Emma's accusations. This part does get a bit silly. There's no way the police would treat Emma so shabbily in real life. But in this movie they do. Uraski is too well liked and respected. As the coroner Uraski has the perfect setup...he does autopsies on his victims so there's never any evidence to point to him. The cops think Emma is nuts.

Emma does start to lose it. She relentlessly tries to prove that Uraski is a killer. She tries to blow up his house to prove there's a hidden cellar and gets arrested for her trouble. It seems like the world is against her in this, but she knows Uraski is a monster. She knows sooner or later he'll try to kill her to shut her up. So Emma goes plumb loco. She's been disbarred for her antics and has little to lose. She disguises herself and kidnaps Uraski much the way he did it to her. Then she chains him up in her basement and tortures the f*** out of him. Emma tells Uraski she knows she'll never get her life back, but she is going to kill him after she tortures him for awhile. The plan goes pretty well. The only fly in the ointment comes when Emma's boyfriend George shows up and finds Emma torturing Uraski. (Great time for him to show up to...we don't see this guy for most of the movie... and the first time was only so we could see him humping Emma.)

George thinks Emma has totally gone mad so he handcuffs her to a banister in the basement and frees Uraski. Up until now I thought Uraski was clever. But then he does something stupid. All he had to do was either kill Emma while she was stuck to the banister or get out of the house...she kidnapped him and everyone knows she has a vendetta against him. He could have had her in prison and been safe to continue his murders. Either way he'd win. But the dummy attacks George as soon as he's unbound, and foolishly gives Emma a chance to impale him with a pike or something that was near her. Emma then pours gasoline on Uraski's body and sets him aflame. Then we see that all of this has been in Emma's memory...she was the woman in the straightjacket, obviously committed (by George, maybe...Emma had no family and George wasn't killed by Uraski, only knocked out) Emma has her revenge, a dish best served cold...but with a price.

This movie was pretty entertaining. If only some of the nonsensical parts had been done better. I'd like to know how Uraski managed to conceal his basement. What drove him to kill initially? Why are the police so unwilling to believe a word of what Emma says? she is a lawyer, after all! (Oops! that might explain it!) Emma was played by Jane Longnecker. I've never heard of her, but I mention her name because she reminds me of my friend, Iron Annie....and she's really cute.

Best Lines: "You're full of [unwrite], Leon!"- Emma as she gets her revenge.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?:

1.) What the...? Did something just happen? I don't know!!!? One minute we see the hooker, Nadine, talking to a guy in the car, the next we get disjointed flashes of a girls screaming, blood splattering on walls and the feet of someone in a pool of blood! I don't even know WHO the coroner is! At this point I don't even know the characters names! What the hell is going on! Who edited this? A dyslexic?

2.) I'm going to start finding out all of the names of the towns that these b-movies take place in. I have to. I want to make sure I never move to any of them because they all have inept law enforcement! Emma escapes Uraski's cellar of torture only to be hit by a car right outside of his home. (Looks like they stole a part of your Forever Evil script, Dr. Freex!) But when she comes to in a hospital the police don't believe her about her experience. Oookay...lets look at some compelling reasons to why this is just plain crazy. First, Emma was kidnapped off of the street at night and she says she was held captive for a few days, maybe a week. In all that time didn't her boyfriend or co-workers wonder where she was? Logically someone would have reported her missing! Secondly, she has injuries...Uraski cut off her finger...that she couldn't have inflicted on herself. (yeah, she could have cut her own finger off, but why would the cops think she would do that?) Thirdly, Uraski has obviously killed others in the same manner he planned for Emma. So the police ought to be aware that a serial killer is on the loose in town and eager to find any leads to him. There are probably a lot of other reasons the cops would have investigated Emma's case with gusto, but there are none to make her look like a liar or a crazy person! The cops say they don't have any idea of where to look for her captor...oh puh-leeze. She was hit right in FRONT of Uraski's home! Don't the accident reports have a location on them!? Klondike Kat could've solved this case!

3.) Whoa! I was just thinking that this movie had passed its silly parts and may end up being pretty good when WHAM! Emma does something so remarkably stupid it belies belief! Seeking evidence against Uraski she goes to his house at night, uses an explosive to blast a hole in the basement and then breaks in and holds Uraski at gunpoint! She forces Uraski out in the yard to observe the hole and hopefully the phantom cellar where she was tortured. Only the hole is about a foot long. Right. The explosion we see was pretty freaking big. I expected the house to be on fire after such a blast! But there's only a dinky little hole. Then in a move of unparalleled idiocy, Emma kneels down to look leaving Uraski standing behind her! He then conks her on the head and calls the police charging her with breaking and entering. How stupid was that plan? On a scale of 1 to ten it was a 500! To make Emma look even stupider she's shocked that the cops want to arrest her! What the [unwrite] did she think was going to happen?

NUDITY AND SEX:  A few boob shots at a strip club. Emma does the dirty deed with her boyfriend.

HUH?:  Why is Emma's bed in her living room?

If Emma planned on torturing Uraski for long while after kidnapping him why didn't she change the locks so her boyfriend couldn't just walk in on her while she's having her bloody vengeance? This guy strolls in and hears Uraski calling Emma from the basement. Keep in mind that Emma said earlier that the basement was a bomb shelter so Uraski can scream all he wants and no one will hear.

Anyone know anything about the law? Tell me if this is feasible if you do....After Emma uses explosives and breaks into Uraski's house she's arrested. But Uraski won't press charges so she's free. Huh? I'm sure there has to be some kind of law against blasting a house with an explosive no matter if the owner presses charges or not.

THE TALLY: Its a low budget thriller, but its worth a rental if you can get it for less than two bucks. Keep in mind to be prepared for some of its cheesiness. I didn't say it was a good movie, I said it was fun. But maybe that's only 'cuz I think Emma was cute. The Inferno gives this movie four devil heads for being fairly decent yet cheesy. If you don't appreciate cheese take two away.