The incredibly successful Saw franchise gave birth to a new breed of torture type horror that many have tried to emulate but none ever come close to. The makers of the Saw knock offs miss the point that made Saw so successful and Vile is a perfect example of that. Vile is gory and torturous just for the shock value. It has a weak strand of a story, characters you just don't care about no matter how invested they try and make you, and no real villain per se. You know a "twist" is coming...its a given but you don't care by the end of it. The film will make you wince, there is no doubt about, some of the torture scenes are brutal although they try (again like Saw) to leave a lot of it up to your imagination. But there is also a fair share of true bloody gore. I really had to push myself to get through it just because the story was just really bad. I mean, the whole fill the meter with torture on each other is sort of an interesting concept but its so badly delivered. The most important part of the film is that you just don't care...how it begins, what goes on, and how it ends.
April Matson plays the scream queen of the film. She does okay, much like the rest of the cast but they are given little to no personality. Her schtick that they make clear early on is that she's pregnant and that's her character in a nutshell. Eric Jay Beck is her boyfriend and pays an important part in the whole story. He does well too. He probably gives a slightly better performance but not by much. Akeem Smith is the token minority of the film. I liked his character, he was kind of feisty and actually more of a hero than the rest of them. Greg Cipes seems like the geeky second string character but plays a bigger part in the final outcome. I found his acting strained and almost annoying. There are a few other supporting characters that really do not much of anything than scream and run around frantically. The last main character would be Maya Hazen who plays the obnoxious and loud girl who wants to turn on everyone. She's okay but she truly does get obnoxious and has a ridiculous scene where she "accidentally" scratches wildly and ends up killing a girl ridiculously severing her neck artery.
The actors are not the issue with this movie, they could have likely done a better job with a much better script. The story is simply poorly written. It's a hack job written by someone who wanted nothing more than to get their piece of the "Saw" induced pie. It comes as a zero surprise that the co-writers and producers are first time writers. Eric Jay Beck (who also stars in the film) and has a tiny bit of experience behind the camera and Rob Kowsaluk who has only this film to his credit. On top of that director Taylor Sheridan has done lots of TV performances but this is his only directing credit. Sometimes actors don't translate well behind the camera and this is the perfect example. Even fans of gore won't find much likable about this. 3/10
April Matson plays the scream queen of the film. She does okay, much like the rest of the cast but they are given little to no personality. Her schtick that they make clear early on is that she's pregnant and that's her character in a nutshell. Eric Jay Beck is her boyfriend and pays an important part in the whole story. He does well too. He probably gives a slightly better performance but not by much. Akeem Smith is the token minority of the film. I liked his character, he was kind of feisty and actually more of a hero than the rest of them. Greg Cipes seems like the geeky second string character but plays a bigger part in the final outcome. I found his acting strained and almost annoying. There are a few other supporting characters that really do not much of anything than scream and run around frantically. The last main character would be Maya Hazen who plays the obnoxious and loud girl who wants to turn on everyone. She's okay but she truly does get obnoxious and has a ridiculous scene where she "accidentally" scratches wildly and ends up killing a girl ridiculously severing her neck artery.
The actors are not the issue with this movie, they could have likely done a better job with a much better script. The story is simply poorly written. It's a hack job written by someone who wanted nothing more than to get their piece of the "Saw" induced pie. It comes as a zero surprise that the co-writers and producers are first time writers. Eric Jay Beck (who also stars in the film) and has a tiny bit of experience behind the camera and Rob Kowsaluk who has only this film to his credit. On top of that director Taylor Sheridan has done lots of TV performances but this is his only directing credit. Sometimes actors don't translate well behind the camera and this is the perfect example. Even fans of gore won't find much likable about this. 3/10