Taking much of its premise from headline news, David Michael Quiroz, Jr.'s Promise has some potential within but finds itself waylaid by its basic plotting and mildly clumsy suspense scenes. While it's refreshing to see an indie genre film try to be something other than a slasher or vampire movie, and there are some good things to be taken away from this, but when all is said and done, there's not quite enough proficient skill on hand to deliver the goods.

We're introduced to Jessie (Kurt Kubicek) and Seline (Noelle Wheeler), who met at a boring looking party and after much small talk started dating. Now they're a couple and on a road trip to go camping. Along the way they decide to take a side street, which any horror fan knows is a bad idea. Not long after, a policeman driving in front of them drives over some tire spikes, which brings them to a halt. They're ambushed by some survival gear wearing baddies sporting guns and knives who kill the officer and kidnap Seline. This gives Quiroz the chance to try and stage a suspenseful abduction scene that starts out a bit iffy due to his characters' actions (Seline honks the horn at one kidnapper and, instead of going for her, he runs after Jessie) and things are shot with a bit too much light but there's an alright balance of desperation and chase scenes on hand that manage to work pretty well when all is said and done.

From here we're given a bunch of scattered flashbacks to build-up the relationship between our couple for us while we learn that the people behind the attack are actually a religious cult led by off-kilter matriarch Brother Abraham (Ron Bowen). The remainder of the film contains lots of religious pontificating, shots of Jessie hiding in the shadows, and a cameo appearance by always busy cult favourite scream queen Tiffany Shepis (who gives the movie it's mild dose of nudity as she really has no other point here but that) as our love-stricken hero heads out to try and rescue his girlfriend from Abraham and his brainwashed minions who seem to want to use her for breeding purposes.

Amongst the cast of amateur actors, Bowen fares best as the fanatical Abraham. His mood shifts from calm, stoic authority to bloodlust worked pretty well for me. Kubicek is pretty decent in the hero role taking a character that starts out too wimpy to be convincing and transforming him into Charles Bronson-lite. On the flipside of the chart, Wheeler doesn't get to do a heck of a lot more than play the sobbing victim and it eventually gets old and Seth Gandrud is pretty wooden as Abraham's head guard, Mason.

Even at a slender 79-minutes, Promise feels like it drags more than it should. This is especially true during the finale which I felt could have been wrapped up way earlier, and easier, than it is - though I do give credit to Quiroz for coming up with an inventive use of a pair of handcuffs. The problem here is that the plotting, at its most basic, just doesn't manage to capture your attention.

I should also mention that I'm not a fan of R-Squared's DVD cover art as it makes the film look a lot more exploitive than it actually is. In fact, I was almost hoping for a bit more sleaze here, as Promise plays out much too tame for my liking. I understand that Quiroz wanted to keep his film more rooted in reality but I'll be damned if I wouldn't of liked a whole slew of over-the-top revenge like we saw in films like The Last House on the Left or Ms. 45, then it might've been more than the bland thriller it turned out to be. (Chris Hartley, 9/25/09)

Directed By: David Michael Quiroz, Jr.
Written By: David Michael Quiroz, Jr.

Starring: Kurt Kubicek, Noelle Wheeler, Seth Gandrud, Ron Bowen.

Picture Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: Made for a budget of about eight-thousand-dollars, Promise looks just fine on DVD. The picture is clean and watchable if nothing spectacular.

Extras: There's a decent handful of special features here as we get a blooper reel, Bowen's audition tape, a trailer, and two commentary tracks. The DVD I watched also contained a "Making Of" featurette that is, sadly, excluded on R-Squared's release. Paired with the two commentary tracks (one with Quiroz and producer Nathan Price, the other with Quiroz and various crew members), you get a decent picture of what goes into making an indie film with barely any money.

Visit the Official Website for more info.