The Retaliators – REVIEW

An anti-violence God fearing pastor avenges his daughter’s murder in this low budget C-grade thriller, which is overloaded with barbaric and blood curdling scenes of bodily harm and death.

Add to the mix a wayward cop fighting his own demons who has set up an underground dungeon, a torture chamber more aptly, filled with murderers, child molesters and rapists where he delivers his own ‘hands on’ style of punishment.

The Retaliators commences as a captivating thriller with good performances from an unknown yet capable cast. Enter the villain who wastes no time in murdering the pastor’s daughter, a beautiful young lady who was simply guilty of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

The cop tells the pastor that he has caged the man who murdered his daughter and offers the pastor one minute alone to avenge the murderer, one minute which he describes as “time to heal”– the only rule is that he can’t kill him.

But does the pastor accept the challenge? What are the repercussions if he doesn’t?

The action picks up in the second half and so does the violence which is so extreme and unrealistic at times that the film inadvertently transpires into a bloodfest comedy. The question that needs to be asked is why are all these caged criminals mysteriously and hysterically in zombie state once released from the chamber of horrors?

Actually, don’t ask, just sit back, and watch this celluloid bloodbath evolve which strangely enough may fill that 90-minute void in your day.

The Retaliators can best be described as ‘a dime a dozen flick’. Unsettling at times and tackling the thought-provoking subject of ‘an eye for an eye’ it’s definitely not for squeamish audiences.

★★

In cinemas September 14