''FEARnet Movie Review: 'Chained'''

I'VE BEEN WAITING TO HEAR FROM THE 'BIG GUNS'...THIS REVIEW DOESN'T CONTAIN ANY REAL SPOILERS...

FEARNET 
By Scott Weinberg

Once in a while we hear a horrific story about a mentally deranged kidnapper who abducts someone, and simply keeps them. No ransom, no murder; just time spent as someone else’s plaything or reluctant companion. When they pop up in the newspapers, these tragic stories hit home in a dark, personal way. We ponder (hopefully for not very long) how we might deal with such a terrible ordeal, and it’s that sort of communal fear that always seems to seep into horror cinema. A recent (and rather solid) indie called Bereavement tackled this tale, and now comes Chained, the latest in dark genre fare from Jennifer Lynch, whom most FEARnet readers may remember from films like the absurd Boxing Helena, the amusing Surveillance, or the bizarre Bollywood import known as Hisss.

The dark and challenging (and occasionally dopey) Chained is Ms. Lynch’s most “complete” horror film to date, and while it does spin its wheels for a while, the loyal genre viewers will be “rewarded” with a stark, unpredictable, and frequently ugly rumination on themes like free will and morality. Chained is not a fun-time horror flick, and sometimes Lynch and leading man Vincent D’Onofrio go a little overboard from time to time, but despite some early misgivings, I found myself rather fascinated by this two-character horror tale.

Basically, a brutal yet clever psychopath (D’Onofrio) has kidnapped a young boy, but instead of demanding ransom or disposing of the victim, he keeps the kid (chained to the wall) as a servant. Time goes on, and as the kid grows into a willful teenager, the psycho continues to bring shrieking women home for killing. Frequent conversations between villain and his unwilling accomplice are, to the credit of Lynch and co-writer Damian O’Donnell, compelling enough, but they seem to get a bit (grossly) melodramatic as we start to learn the “reasons” for the psycho’s behavior.

When Ms. Lynch sticks to the morality play -- does long exposure to evil make you evil? -- Chained works, and although he could probably play an effective lunatic in his sleep, Mr. D’Onofrio does a fine job of articulating his character’s own logic, sick and twisted as it may be. Where Chained stumbles is in the tonal shifts. The flashback scenes and a large chunk of Act III seem a little more “traditional” than the more subversive and disturbing ideas found earlier in the film, but on the whole Chained deserves credit for trying to mine some relatively intelligent chills out of something different, topical, and primally disturbing.

''Fantasia 2012: ‘Chained’ (Review)''

DREAMMOVIECAST

SPOILER ALERT!

Posted at August 7, 2012 by Mario Melidona 

“Terror starts at home” or so what Jennifer Lynch makes of it. Filled with despair, fear and the traumatic events of growing up, Chained is an absolutely mesmerizing and enveloping story about a serial killer taking in a child and raising him to be his family. Starring Vincent D’Onofrio as the terrifying and physically intimidating warped sociopath, Jennifer Lynch makes great use of the barren middle-of-anywhere U.S.A. and gnaws at the core humanity in all of us. The film had its World Premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival. 

It’s difficult to talk about the film without ever constantly coming back to D’Onofrio, an actor who’s always gone all-in when it comes to these sorts of roles. Who could ever forget Full Metal Jacket? No one. D’Onofrio’s portrayal of Bob is enthralling; his body hunched over almost childlike himself with a slight lisp. He’s not stupid, but is slightly naïve about the relationship he tries to cultivate with Rabbit, the boy he kidnapped and brought up under his control. Rabbit’s story begins when he and his mother Sarah Fittler (Julia Ormond) were leaving from a movie theater and got into the wrong cab, driven by Bob. Portrayed at two distinct “growing” stages, Evan Bird provides deep emotional terror as a young boy and the film quickly skips ahead several years to show a victimized and “chained” up late-teen Rabbit (Eamon Farren). We see the routine he’s had to live with for years, forcing him to clean after Bob’s kill, eat only what’s left for him after Bob’s eaten and finally realizing that the wanting to escape is much harder than expected. 

Growing up from a truly warped childhood, Bob kills women because they’re born “sluts” and “whores”; traits attributed to women from all walks of life. When Bob was much younger,[SPOILERS] he was taking the brunt of his father’s abuse in order to protect his brother and was forced to have sex with his mother, which was his father’s twisted sense of becoming a “man” (in clear contrast to what his father was not). [END SPOILERS] Thinking that Rabbit needed a woman to clear his mind, Bob forces him to choose a woman for his first kill. Strangely enough throughout all these years of abuse, Rabbit demonstrates that no matter how corrupted or how long we’ve become accustomed to violence and abuse, there’s always core humanity in all of us; one that we should and can strive to be better and change our destructive ways. 

Needing to escape and in trying to save Annie (his chosen “first kill”), Rabbit gives away his plan to escape and save Annie to Bob and the ensuing sequence is heart-pounding and nerve-racking, you almost wish none of it was actually happening. D’Onofrio constructs a physical stature and presence, a calculated and precise mannerism that all leads Bob to an expulsion of rage, anger, bewilderment and betrayal. Wishing that you could save the little boy in him, but not before one more reveal that (in retrospect) you may have seen coming. The build-up has been so incredibly tense and immersive; you wonder why you didn’t ask yourself that question before. 

In fact, it’s a testament to the filmmakers where the editing let’s performances breathe from the entire cast (noting that to edit Vincent D’Onofrio is the hardest task at hand) and the story being so tightly written by Damian O’Donnell (polished by Jennifer Lynch herself), the film is propelled by characters that the progression of the narrative and everyone’s motivation is sound and purposeful. We often don’t get a film like this and beautifully photographed by Cinematography Shane Daly; we need to relish them, to uphold is thematic relevancies and to better our society at large. Jennifer Lynch brings about the atmospherics of daily life and the horror that begins at home. 

RATING: 5/5

'Chained': Back To The Beginning...

[Some of this may be redundant to those of you who have seen the information already, but I wanted to have it archived here because of it being previously lost from my other site.]

Below, I made some collages of before and after from set to finished product...

BOB'S HOUSE BEING CONSTRUCTED AND BELOW HIS HOUSE ON FILM FROM TRAILER

BOB'S 'DUNGEON' IN AN ARTIST'S DEPICTION AND BELOW BOB AND RABBIT ON FILM

SET PHOTO OF BOB'S 'ARSENAL' AND BELOW SCREEN CAPS OF 'KNIVES IN ACTION'

SET PHOTOS OF BOB'S VICTIMS IN GARBAGE BAGS AND DUCT TAPE AND ON FILM

ON JUNE 3, 2011, VINCENT APPEARED ON THE TV SHOW 'GOOD THINGS UTAH' TO PROMOTE THE UTAH METH COPS PROJECT CHARITY EVENT AND AT THE END OF THIS VIDEO HE TALKS ABOUT 'RABBIT' AND HIS CHARACTER BEING THE DARKEST ROLE HE HAS EVER PORTRAYED...

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE...

DAWN SCOTT, JULIA ORMOND'S STAND IN, HAD THIS TO SAY, JULY 5, 2011...

'Okay. So, when I was standing in for Julia Ormond on Sunday, it was a hot hot day. Everyone got burned and some to the point of blistering. Julia was kind enough to approach me, shake my hand and introduce herself. I introduced myself and told her it was a pleasure to meet her. She has the most beautiful eyes. Vincent D'Onofrio caught me off gaurd when he approached the tent we were sitting in to say "hi" to everyone. I just smiled and wiggled my fingers his way as I didn't immediately recognize him. When I got a better look and realized who he was, I excused myself from the tent (with a little encouragement from the Producer David Buelow), as I don't think it was appropriate for me to be in there at the same time. The next day when I was sitting in the back of the prop taxi cab that they are using for the movie, I was staring blankly out the window when I heard someone throw something into the cab through the driver side window and then they said good morning. I slowly turned my attention towards the direction of the voice and boom, there's Vincent staring at me having just placed his jacket on the seat. I jumped a little bit when I seen who it was and laughed as it is the second time he has caught me off guard and quickly said, "Oh hi! I was day dreaming!" He smiled slightly and walked off. HeHe I find him rather curious. Then much later in the day when I was leaning over the side of a pickup truck he came to the other side to be "jacketed." He stopped to look my way and said very calmy, "How are you doing today?" Finally...not having been caught of guard I was able to politely reply, "Very well thank you." Definately a very interesting man. He seems to offer so little with words, but his actions and his face say so much! I am definately looking forward to working with him on the 14th. I'm actually really excited now that I have met him. I spent the day hanging out with Josh Strait. He's really a terrific guy. Very easy to be around and so full of life. He's the stand in for Vincent in this movie.'

FROM 'DISCOVER MOOSE JAW', ON JULY 7, 2011, DETAILS OF FILMING LOCALES WERE DISCUSSED, AND IF YOU CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK YOU CAN ACCESS A 5 MINUTE AUDIO INTERVIEW WITH THE PRODUCER, DAVID BEULOW...

'Film crews are back in Moose Jaw as our city plays host to another movie. The cameras started rolling on the weekend for "Rabbit". Envision Media Arts out of Los Angeles is working on the psychological thriller starring Vincent D'Onofrio from Full Metal Jacket and most recently, Law and Order: Criminal Intent along with Julia Ormond from Legends of the Fall. Producer David Buelow says the story follows a serial killer who kidnaps a boy and raises him like a son. "We're filming actually in a rural area and we're using a house on a farm. It's very remote and this is where the killer lives. We're filming some back roads there. Then we're also doing some stuff in more upscale neighbourhoods for the next couple of days in Moose Jaw at some of the nicer houses. We're filming both the exterior and interior of those homes in Moose Jaw and then at least in one of the garages," said Buelow. Filming will continue in Moose Jaw for about a week before shifting to Regina. Rabbit is expected to be released to theatre sometime next year.'

FROM MJTIMES, ON JULY 8, 2011

Published on July 8, 2011

From left: Shane Daly, cinematographer, Jennifer Lynch, director, and Damian O'Donnel, screenwriter, pose on the Moose Jaw set of the film Rabbit. Times-Herald photo by Samuel Dobrin.

Beware all Moose Javians! A psychotic, serial-killing cab driver is on the lose and he may be on his way to pick you up. 

But don’t worry, it’s only a movie. Rabbit, directed by Jennifer Lynch and starring Vincent D’Onofrio (Law & Order) and Julia Ormond (Legends of the Fall), is a psychological thriller about a serial killer (D’Onofrio) who kidnaps and raises a young boy to become his protégé. The boy — played by rising Vancouver star Evan Bird — has to make a decision if he will follow in the killer’s footsteps or hold onto the humanity that he had in his previous life with his parents. 

David Buelow, one of the producers of the upcoming thriller (he is joined by Lee Nelson and local producer Rhonda Baker), said the contrast of Moose Jaw and utter “vastness” of the Saskatchewan prairie was ideal for crafting the film. 

“We needed a really remote house that would be on the edge of town,” he said. “Creatively, this was exactly what we were looking for.” 

Buelow hopes the film will attract a wide audience. 

“It’s a psychological thriller, not a horror movie,” said Buelow, who has produced films for more than a decade with Envision Media Arts. “It’ll be kind of like Silence of the Lambs or 7even. 

“(D’Onofrio) plays a cab driver, who picks up his victims in the city and takes them out to his remote dwelling,” said Buelow. “I don’t want to give away the rest.” 

In addition to its thematic benefits and lower-budget potential, Buelow says Moose Jaw is a very “film-friendly” city. 

“The director, Jen Lynch, filmed Surveillance in Saskatchewan and really wanted to come back,” he said. “She’s a huge fan of this area.” 

 A Los Angeles native, this was Buelow’s first time to Moose Jaw and Saskatchewan. 

“It’s just one big prairie,” he said, smiling. “In California, you can’t go anywhere without seeing a mountain.”  

As for the people, Buelow says they’ve lived up to Lynch’s promise of being super friendly and co-operative. 

“We hired quite a few Moose Jaw natives (25 extras) for a shoot at the Galaxy (Cinemas),” said Buelow. “They can look for themselves on the big screen. We even featured some of your mosquitoes in the movie.” 

Rabbit is not the first film to be shot in Moose Jaw. 

The city has played host to numerous films throughout the past 10 years, including Surveillance, Just Friends (Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart) and Sleepwalking (Charlize Theron produced and acted). 

Susanne Bell, CEO of SaskFilm and film commissioner for the province, agrees that Moose Jaw’s combination of setting, low costs and film savvy makes it ideal for filmmaking. 

“There such a diversity of looks that are standing right there (in Moose Jaw),” she said. “We don’t have to build the sets. It’s just right there.” 

After working with Lynch on Surveillance, Bell is really excited to have her back. 

“She became a part of the Saskatchewan film fabric when she worked here,” says Bell. “We couldn’t wait to have her back.” 

Rabbit is expected to release sometime in 2012. 

FROM 'PERTH NOW', DECEMBER 17, 2011,  DAMIAN O'DONNELL, WHO WROTE THE SCRIPT FOR 'CHAINED', SAID OF VINCENT...

O'Donnell had to pinch himself at times when he was on set in July watching D'Onofrio and Ormond perform their craft with his script.

"It is in pretty good hands," he said.

"Hearing Vincent on set . . . I can remember sitting at my desk when I was writing it, thinking, 'What the hell am I going to get this guy to say next?' And then a guy of Vincent's calibre comes along and elevates the character more than I could have imagined. He has developed this speech impediment and he has a stoop and he walks with a shuffle.

"I wrote it, I knew what he was going to say, but he still scared the shit out of me."