RAVAGE -- Political Satire Meets Torture Porn

Review by Sean Boelman

Annabelle Dexter-Jones as Harper Sykes in RAVAGE, Courtesy of Brainstorm Media.

Though a torture porn film about the MAGA generation may not sound like what we need at the moment, Teddy Grennan has delivered one anyway, and it’s a consistently brutal (and frequently gnarly) watch. With moments that are thrilling and disgusting, often at the same time, Ravage isn’t an easy movie to stomach but it will definitely satisfy genre fans.

The film follows a nature photographer who, after turning her camera onto something that she wasn’t supposed to see, finds herself trying to escape a band of savage bumpkins in a disturbing game of cat-and-mouse. And while this cat-and-mouse setup is pretty simple (and a political message is nothing new to the genre), Grennan does it in such a lean and punchy way that it works quite well.

There admittedly isn’t a whole lot of subtlety to what Grennan has to say, but this genre isn’t known for having great nuance. With the antagonist uttering lines such as “I am preserving a way of life!” or “I am fighting for what I believe in!” it’s not particularly difficult to figure out exactly who he is targeting.

At right around an hour and twenty minutes, the movie moves very quickly and is basically one torture sequence after another. Of course, there are some of these moments that are more effective than others, but a majority of them have some form of guttural impact. That said, towards the end of the film, the narrative structure starts to fall apart and the movie closes with a whimper.

Robert Longstreet as Ravener and Annabelle Dexter-Jones as Harper Sykes in RAVAGE, Courtesy of Brainstorm Media.

The character development in the film is also somewhat lacking. Granted, it’s easy to sympathize with the protagonist if only because of her situation, but there’s not a whole lot of backstory to be found here. Even the mythology surrounding the antagonists is left mostly unexplored.

There are some really solid performances in the movie, particularly from the film’s villains. Robert Longstreet is phenomenally menacing in his performance as the lead antagonist. Bruce Dern also has a devilish bit part. Still, Annabelle Dexter-Jones’s leading turn can’t be discounted, as she brings a lot of emotion to the table.

Grennan’s style is definitely very rough around the edges, but there are some interesting things happening in the movie in terms of creative torture methods. There’s one moment at the end of the film that will almost certainly be burned into viewers’ minds because of how disturbing and messed up it is.

Ravage offers a satisfying amount of carnage for a torture porn movie. Despite being pretty rough around the edges, the performances are good enough and there is sufficient creativity (and depravity) to make this worth a watch.

Ravage is now playing in select theaters and hits VOD on August 21.

​Rating: 3.5/5