Much like the wave of "torture porn" horror flicks that came out around the time of Saw and Hostel it seems that the home invasion sub-genre has been gaining more and more steam. When done correctly like it was in The Strangers it can be an exhilarating time and when done with indifference like it was in The Purge (a movie that should've been something entirely different considering its premise) it can be quite a bore. Recently, You're Next kicked a whole lot of ass and it's that flick that Torment seems to emulate and reminded me of the most. It has the standard home invasion set-up and has our psychopath baddies wearing animal masks - in this case so they resemble various stuffed toys.

After an opening assault on a dysfunctional family we're introduced to Cory (Robin Dunne), his young son Liam (Peter DaCuhna) and new stepmom Sarah (Katharine Isabelle). They're heading for the weekend at his country home so that Liam can try and bond with Sarah as he just doesn't like her and still has issues with her taking the place of his real mother who died a few years prior. They arrive at the cottage and, upon unpacking, discover evidence that someone's been in the house.

Cue our baddies who, as we know, were responsible for the opening murders and have now set their sights on the young family. It's here that the script, which has done a decent job developing our main characters up to now, shifts into a more by-the-book home invasion mode (with a few slasher undertones) as our relentless baddies focus on psychologically torturing their victims. There's a whole lot of creeping around in the darkness of the house and it does offer up some decent moments of suspense and once they decide to kidnap Liam there's a well-done transformation of Sarah from seemingly helpless to heroic that worked for me.

We all know that for this type of flick to work we have to care about our main characters and, thankfully, Dunne and Isabelle have good chemistry together and make for a likeable pair. DaCuhna, who was nine when this was filmed, isn't the annoying kid actor a lot of horror flicks contain and is actually pretty good while always busy (and always recognizable) Canadian character actor Stephen McHattie (Pontypool) shows up as the sheriff. However, the show belongs to Isabelle. She's an actress I've liked since seeing her in Ginger Snaps back in 2000 and it's great that Torment, along with 2012's American Mary, has given her a chance at lead roles - I was definitely rooting for her character here.

At 77 minutes Torment makes for brisk entertainment. It doesn't stray too far from the path most before it have trod and there's the minimal amount of plot necessary but all the attack scenes are staged with some panache and it hits all the expected tropes including the shaky run camera and peel-a-boo background glimpses. Where it stumbles is the script's "huh?" reasoning for why the baddies are targeting our family and I really would've liked a little bit more about our killers. Sometimes knowing little about our villains works, take Carpenter's Halloween for example, but here we literally know nothing, they are truly empty shells. The flick also was really dark and it made it harder to see what was going on at times - unless it was the fault of the review copy I received which seemed to shimmer throughout. Still, that doesn't sway me from recommending this to you as it's an efficient, well-made low-budget flick that gets by on some ominous mood, those pretty creepy masks, and Isabelle's performance. (Chris Hartley, 7/29/14)

Directed By: Jordan Barker.
Written By: Michael Foster, Thomas Pound.

Starring: Katharine Isabelle, Robin Dunne, Peter DaCuhna, Noah Danby.