Metacritic Film

Captivity

Starring Elisha Cuthbert, Daniel Gillies, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Laz Alonso, Michael Harney, and Rebekah Ryan

MPAA RATING: R for strong violence, torture, pervasive terror, grisly images, language and some sexual material

After Dark Films
Suspense/Thriller
85 minutes | Color
USA / Russia
Released In Theaters July 13, 2007

Top cover girl and fashion model, Jennifer Tree has it all - beauty, fame, money and power. She is loved and adored and sought after. But someone out there wants her in the worst way. Out alone at a charity event in Soho, Jennifer is drugged and taken. Held captive in a cell, Jennifer is subjected to a series of terrifying, life-threatening tortures that could only be conceived by a twisted, sadistic mind. (After Dark Films)

WRITTEN BY
Larry Cohen (& story)
Joseph Tura

DIRECTED BY
Roland Joffé

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

24 / 100

Critic Reviews

70 Village Voice Luke Y. Thompson
Roland Joffé creates a visually interesting and aurally unsettling vibe, and the story from B-movie maestro Larry Cohen keeps it simple.
50 TV Guide
Quite possibly the final word on a much-maligned genre.
50 Variety
Destined to be better remembered for its grisly billboard imagery than for its relatively tame torture-porn tropes, Captivity is a thoroughly nasty piece of work that nonetheless earns credit for generating modest suspense after a predictable but effective plot twist around the 50-minute mark.
42 Entertainment Weekly
Roland Joffé brings an artful video-grunge look, and not much else, to this "Saw" clone.
40 Empire
Torture junkies should remember it’s only four months to Saw IV -- so you can afford to avoid Captivity.
30 Chicago Reader
It's not scary because not one second is believable.
30 Film Threat Felix Vasques Jr.
A terrible rehash of better torture genre exploitation, with none of the charm.
30 The New York Times
The movie has been thoroughly eclipsed by "Captivity" the marketing.
25 The Onion (A.V. Club)
In a genre where killers love to play head games, it's a clever idea (Cohen's?) to have this one remain mute, but that leaves Cuthbert to carry much of the psychological load, and there's no substance to her character, apart from the suggestion that she's being punished for her vanity.
25 Premiere
Thoroughly irritating little film.
25 Boston Globe
A wan, derivative entry in the torture-porn cycle.
25 The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jason Anderson
A lurid thriller that marks a new career low for both director Roland Joffé (The Killing Fields, The Mission) and co-screenwriter Larry Cohen (Phone Booth, It's Alive).
25 New York Post Rocco Landesman
Captivity is torture porn without the sex. Cuthbert squirms, screams, weeps and pleads for her life with great conviction. Slick, sick sleaze.
20 The Hollywood Reporter
The end result doesn't even satisfy on its own sleazy terms. Not only does it lack the satirical nihilism of the "Hostel" films or the admittedly clever torture machinations of the "Saw" series, it doesn't even provide its target young male audience with the requisite nudity.
20 Los Angeles Times Robert Abele
It's the movie business equivalent of encountering someone you once knew begging for money on the street.
0 ReelViews
If there is another challenger for worst entry of 2007, I don't want to see it.
0 Austin Chronicle
Captivity is the kind of film that gives torture porn a bad name.

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