For the Sake of Vicious (Fantasia Fest)
**Seen for the 2020 Fantasia International Film Festival.
It wasn’t until about midway through this thriller that it occurred to me just how much of a dearth of non-horror genre films we’ve gotten this year. I’ve seen so many horror films, dramas and documentaries that it never really hit me just how much the pandemic has practically eliminated action and straight thrillers from this year’s moviewatching diet. (Unless you’re watching Netflix’s offerings.) “For the Sake of Vicious” is a nasty little offering that reminded me of what that genre looked like.
The film by directors Gabriel Carrer (who came up with the story) and Reese Eveneshen (who wrote the screenplay) starts off with a nurse (Romina, played by Lora Burke) on her way home after a long day at work. It’s Halloween night, and she’s taking some of the candy at the front desk “for her child,” although, it’s more likely for trick or treaters so she doesn’t have to stop and buy some. When she gets home, though, she finds a man (Alan, played by Colin Paradine) has been bloodied and beaten her kitchen, with another one (Chris, played by Nick Smyth) tired, laying on the floor. Chris has brought Alan to Romina’s home to keep him alive while he interrogates him. Romina knows why, and she wants nothing to do with this, but she’s left with no option to help, especially when waves of gang members in masks attack the house, which might have to do with Alan, but not in the way we expect.
One of the most interesting aspects of this film is how it switches from one genre story concept to another on a dime- the movie begins as a hostage film and turns into a home invasion movie, all without breaking a metaphorical sweat. And the ways that each one ties into the other, and not in a predictable way, is the sort of genre mashup that is wildly entertaining, and well constructed. All the while, the story has fascinating dilemmas baked into it that allow each character to be interesting, and to have the moral high ground at some time or another. It makes the times between the action feel authentic to the narrative unfolding.
“For the Sake of Vicious” lives up to that last word of its title- it’s a brutal film that doesn’t pull many punches when it comes to violence. No one is spared, and one of the reasons it’s so effective is that it also doesn’t make anyone out to be a superhero. Everyone in the fights gets close to death, and even at the end of the film’s 81 minutes, there might be more that happen off camera. Carrer and Eveneshen keep the film moving forward, even when the action has stopped, by utilizing an ever-present score by Carrer and Foxgrndr; it’s always in the background, and knows exactly when to step up, and when to step back. I always enjoy film scores like that. And this has a pretty damn good one. I can say that about the film as a whole, also, which may seem fairly straight-forward, but has more going on that you are led to think at the outset.
