Rupture (2016)
Directed by Steven Shainberg
A single mom tries to break free from a mysterious organization that has abducted her.
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But Shainberg does include a reference to The Shining —the iconic Overlook Hotel carpet pattern as wallpaper—to show that he is aware of the existence of better movies that share little with Rupture apart from a nebulous genre and a theme of isolation.
The wallpaper, reminiscent of The Shining carpet pattern, is a creepy yet welcomed touch.
It aims for The Shining, but ends up feeling more like a Syfy TV show.
What emerges is more or less akin to the torture porn tendencies of Hostel (2005), or Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs (2008), which infamously depicts a group of bored elitists who mercilessly torture people in order to witness the ultimate ascension to martyrdom.
It feels like Panic Room, Saw, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Hostel got thrown into a blender with some neon food coloring to make it look like a Nicolas Winding Refn movie but with none of the frights or style.
What emerges is more or less akin to the torture porn tendencies of Hostel (2005), or Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs (2008), which infamously depicts a group of bored elitists who mercilessly torture people in order to witness the ultimate ascension to martyrdom.
When her captors turn into shape-shifting alien creatures reminiscent of “Sloth” from “The Goonies,” it’s really hard to emotionally sympathize with her situation.
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Writer/director Steven Shainberg did that once 15 years ago with Secretary, but that movie’s subject matter seems tame compared to something that has its main character strapped down and submitted to having spiders crawl all over her face and there lies the greatest failing with Rupture: it’s incredibly tame.
In his 2002 breakthrough film Secretary , a disturbed young woman gets a job as a legal secretary when her relationship with the lawyer she supports quickly turns not only sexual but sadomasochistic, reminiscent of 50 Shades of Grey .
It’s taken ten years, but Secretary director Steven Shainberg has finally followed-up Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus.
Under the underwhelming direction of Steven Shainberg (“Secretary”/”Hit Me”) and a half-assed script by Shainberg and Brian Nelson.
Working from a script by Brian Nelson ( Hard Candy , 2005; 30 Days of Night , 2007), the Secretary director can’t seem to find his foothold in this vaguely attenuated sci-fi/horror oddity about a group of otherworldly entities masquerading as mad scientists engaged in brutal scientific experiments on carefully selected human subjects.
And so it proves with this sci-fi horror, that ends the ten-year hiatus from filmmaking of Steven Shainberg (he of Secretary fame).
Fawned at and pawed on, thanks to what the scientists consider to be unique properties of her skin (conjuring the essence of Venus Xtravaganza from Paris is Burning ), it becomes clear Renee has been injected with something, and the screams from other prisoners throughout the compound allows her to deduce she will be forced to face her darkest fears in order to undergo a ‘rupture.’
The torture of one prisoner is very A Clockwork Orange and definitely nails the sadistic horror mood.
The presence of veteran bad guy Peter Stormare (“Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski”) makes us fear the worst.
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It feels like Panic Room, Saw, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Hostel got thrown into a blender with some neon food coloring to make it look like a Nicolas Winding Refn movie but with none of the frights or style.
It’s taken ten years, but Secretary director Steven Shainberg has finally followed-up Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus.
A decade after the somewhat unwarranted critical drubbing of Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006), Steven Shainberg breaks the silence with his first bona fide genre effort to date, Rupture.
The average viewer looking for a horror movie to pass the time will be entertained by the film’s freakishness and FX, but more esoteric audiences, especially those familiar with Shainberg’s Secretary and his equally arch Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, will thrill to what is in essence a feminist parable about a woman confronting her fears and using them to become empowered.
The script, by two guys who gave us “Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus” and “Secretary” and most tellingly, “Hard Candy,” between them, has a lot of first-time screenwriter clumsiness.
One has to give some credit to Shainberg, who previously made Secretary and Fur: An Imaginary Portrait Of Diane Arbus .