They All Must Die! (1998)
One of my favourite sub genres in horror is rape and revenge. There's just something so inspiring watching a chick who was previously a victim, kick the shit out of the men that assaulted her. Among this sub genre, you'll find classics like;
I Spit on your Grave, Last House on the Left, Thriller: A Cruel Picture, Ms. 45 and I'll Never Die Alone. These excellent movies for the most part follow a simple formula. We follow a likable protagonist who gets fucked over. We then watch her fuck everyone else over. Must contain a harrowing rape scene and a fucked up revenge scene. That's what these movies are all about, right? A simple formula. So how did They All Must Die! manage to fuck it up?!
Directed by Sean Weathers, a man I know nothing about, They All Must Die! plays like a black version of I Spit on your Grave. Literally, it's essentially the same exact movie, only our rapists are from the ghetto, and it's set in New York City. Oh and our protagonist is a bitch. So already, you can see this movie isn't really setting itself up right. We're supposed to like the victim, that's why we feel bad when she gets raped, and we cheer when she grows some balls. But this chick is just unlikeable. So full of herself. It's hard to sympathise with someone like looks like this.
Not the most flattering picture of her, but still much more flattering then the cover. She's come all the way to New York to write a novel about black guys, or something. And gets annoyed when black guys hit on her. Which one does almost immediately. Cue our would be rapists.
Now these three losers see her move in and right off the bat, two of them just yell shit at her. Not trying to win her affections or anything, just trying to sound as 'gangsta' as possible. Saying stuff like;
"Yo........snowflake! If you aint ever been to the ghetto.......don't ever come to the ghetto. Cos...you wouldn't even understand the ghetto! So stay the fuck out of the ghetto!"
Oh. Are you guys in the ghetto? I'm glad you mentioned it, cos I wouldn't have noticed. Especially since it just looks like a regular street in New York City. And it's just the three of you losers and no one else. Yeah, they seem like real thugs alright. One looks like a 14 year old kid, who proclaims he's a virgin, and would rather be one than "eat pussy". Whatever the hell that means.
We got one that's skinny and who's too chicken shit to actually have sex with the chick, given the chance. And we got the big one, who runs over to her and flirts with her immediately. The big one actually does a pretty decent job at trying to win her affections in being friendly and welcoming. But remember, our chick is a bitch, so she'll reject him, more than once, after all, she's only here to write a book called "America through the Eyes of a Black Man". And who better knows America through the eyes of a black man, then a single white chick!
Well, after half the movie of trying to win over her affections and failing, the boys decide to actually act like thugs, and invade her house and rape her. And truth be told, it's the only good part of the whole movie. Lasting for about 20 mins, it's pretty damn uncomfortable and cringeworthy. But kinda annoying after a while too, both hearing our victim screaming a lot, and hearing the rapists talk shit the entire time and trying to sound tough. It would have been more effective if you actually liked the main girl. Oh well.
Unfortunately, the rape scene seems to be the only reason to see this movie. Everything leading up to it is boring and repetitive, and the revenge scenes after leave much to be desired. For a rape revenge film, there was shockingly little violence, and no gore. I find that very disappointing. The movie has the words BANNED on the cover, and there's no gore? Impossible! This whole movie is a tease!
Speaking of the cover, it's chock full of warnings and declaimers. Of course it is. The only thing offensive about this movie is the rape scene, but even that goes for too long and becomes almost boring at a point. This movie has heart, and wants to be as disturbing as possible. But it's far too obnoxious. While the rape scene tries to be disturbing, what's more offensive is the blatant splicing in of random lynching photos. I have no idea why these images are spliced in, but watch it for long enough and you'll noticed these images popping up for a mini second.
There's no musical score in this, much like I Spit on your Grave. But where I Spit had the peaceful tranquillity of nature and scenery, this movie has NYC. And bad actors pretending they're thugs. This movie plays out like some horror fans got a camera and asked their friends to improvise a movie. That's how low budget it is. So for the most part, it's a very decent effort. And pretty offensive and racist enough to raise some eyebrows. But too boring and obnoxious to be anything special.
4/10
Thanks for reading.
#Extreme #Rape #Revenge
John Wick (2014), starring Keanu Reeves as a the titular character, grieving his late wife. Before her death, however, she left him a lovely little puppy as a parting gift, which he quickly grew to love. However, home invasion and robbery result in a second loss for poor John Wick. This time, he wants some good old-fashioned revenge. Against the mafia.