• Straight to Video
• Director: Steve Sessions
• Written by: Steve Sessions
• Running Time: 88 minutes
• Language: English
• MPAA Rating: R - Restricted
• Cast: Suzi Lorraine, Tom Stedham, Ted Alderman, Lucien Eisenach, Jade Michael LaFont, Luc Bernier

Steve Sessions has proven time and time again that he’s one of the most talented filmmakers currently working in b-movies, and like any true film geek, I anxiously await every new film he releases. To count me amongst his biggest fans would not be a stretch. In fact, I easily consider Sessions’ “Cadaver Bay” and “Dead Clowns” two of the best horror films to be released in the past decade, so you can only imagine how much I was anticipating “Torment”, his latest offering. When it arrived in the mail, it was about two minutes from the box to the DVD player and whatever excursion I had planned for the day was quickly out the window. Okay, so now that I‘ve had a chance to screen it, I’m happy to report that Sessions is still firing on all cylinders. This is a great little film. Although not his best work, “Torment” still manages to be both entertaining and frightening, and exactly what I expected from his dark and twisted mind.

Suzi Lorraine plays Lauren, a woman who has only recently been released from a mental institution into the care of her husband Ray (Tom Stedham). Hoping to re-connect romantically, the estranged couple decide to head off to the country for a quiet weekend together at their cottage. During the road trip, the two soon realize that some of their more erstwhile problems have yet to be resolved. In Lauren’s case, Ray’s drinking has her on edge, while for Ray, he isn’t quite sure if his wife is in the proper mental state to even be out yet. The tension is only heightened when Lauren orders Ray to stop the car, as she’s almost certain that somebody was inside a large garbage bag sitting by a curb. Of course, the bag is filled with garbage, and Ray is only more convinced that his wife isn’t entirely cured. Once at the cabin, things take an even stranger turn, as Lauren is positive that a man dressed in a clown costume is hovering on the outskirts of their remote cabin, off in the woods. She finds a less than sympathetic ear in Ray, who quickly admonishes her for letting her imagination get the best of her. Later, after Ray has headed off to the market for food, a local sheriff (Ted Alderman) stops by the cottage asking Lauren to be on the lookout for two young men – Mormons -- who have gone missing in recent days. Running parallel to Lauren and Ray’s story is another involving, of course, the Clown (Lucien Eisenach) as he slowly and methodically tortures and murders two men inside a cockroach-infested house. The two men are obviously the missing Mormons and the Clown is obviously the fellow hanging around Lauren’s cottage, oh, and he’s obviously one psychotic bastard. Since the audience is keenly aware of both story angles, it’s only a matter of time before the Clown decides to go after the less-than-happy couple and when he does, at exactly the 60 minute mark of the film, all hell breaks loose.

Sessions was clearly inspired by John D. Hancock’s terrifying “Let’s Scare Jessica To Death” when he wrote “Torment”, something made all the more palpable when you look at the central character, Lauren, and the predicament she finds herself in throughout the film. With “Jessica”, the macabre things that transpire in the film are somewhat ambiguous and open-ended, leaving the audience, and the protagonist, to ponder whether or not the events are real or are they simply a product of Jessica’s damaged mind. With “Torment”, however, Sessions attempts to create suspense by traversing the same road but with varying results. See, it works differently because Sessions, in the first scene, shows his hand – offering a glimpse of the Clown as he slowly and methodically tortures a man. Unlike “Jessica”, where tension and suspense was created by the vagueness and uncertainty of the perspective offered -- Jessica's, here we know that Lauren is not insane because the events of the first scene happened as a separate and stand-alone occurrence. The Clown can’t be a figment of Lauren’s imagination, and despite Ray’s insistence that’s she losing her mind; we absolutely know that she isn’t, thus defusing that aspect of tension, if there ever was any. Interestingly, this places the ball entirely into the lap of Lauren who, momentarily, questions her own sanity, even as the Clown has entered her cottage and is sneaking up behind her husband. This sets up a rather interesting dymanic between the characters in the movie and the audience.

The murderous clown theme is something Sessions has explored in past films, namely “Dead Clowns”, but here he adds the serial killer angle into the mix. How does it fair, you ask? Let me just say that of all the cinematic killer clowns presented over the years, this one was easily the most menacing incarnation I’ve seen. The sequences inside the house at film’s end, as the mysterious Clown toys with Lorraine, are absolutely chilling. I’m not sure if it’s the exaggerated smile, or those devious eyes lurking beneath the mask, there’s just something terrifying about this jester. Another thing I really liked with the film was Steve’s decision to not humanize the Clown in any way. In most cases, I’d be demanding some type of character evolution, but here, with this psycho, there’s nothing. The Clown's motivations and history are never once clarified from the first scene til the end credits roll, and rightly so. We do know however that he’s a masochist and a cannibal. We also know that at some point, he’s moved into one of the vacated cottages near where Ray and Lauren have sought sanctuary. That’s it. For whatever reason, it seems to only add to the mysteriousness and menace of this masked monster.

B-movie stalwart, Suzi Lorraine, an actress who appeared in my friend S.V. Bell’s “Purple Glow”, does an absolutely amazing job here playing a character wrestling with the demons of her past, and not entirely sure of her own sanity. Across the board, her work in the film is exemplary. My favourite scene comes early on, where, during a scene with Ted Alderman, she completely breaks down while pondering the one-year age difference that existed between her and her deceased brother. Tom Stedham (2008’s “Platoon of the Dead”) as Ray, has one of the more complex characters in the film. Ray is a guy that clearly loves his wife and wants to be there for her, but has grown bitter and cold over the years. He’s happy to drink his sorrows away, something that only works to aggravate his wife and further cement that wedge between them. Steve Sessions' regular, Lucien Eisenach (2003’s “Psycho Santa”), returns to play Dissecto, the evil serial killer clown. Through his body language, and the help of a creepy mask, Lucien does a great job of presenting a rather frightening portrait of a maniac. Ted Alderman (2008’s “Scream Farm”) is also great, hamming it up in a small role as the town sheriff.

Another hallmark of a Steve Sessions production is the creepy musical score, composed by Sessions himself. As with all of his previous films, his score goes along way in setting up the film’s ominous and creepy atmosphere. The gore effects are handled well by Lucien and Steve, and since much of the film features extended sequences of a person tethered to a chair being tortured, they have plenty of time to experiment, and figure out ways to make the effects look authentic using only the type of props that a modest budget will allow. The fake hand being severed looks like a fake hand, however, the tongue-amputation sequence is much more realistic. There's another thing I should comment on and it is that many people believe that Steve’s films are too slow -- that his pacing is way off, but for me, I absolutely love it. It’s one of my favourite things about a Steve Sessions film, the fact that he has this freedom to take his time developing situations. Most of the independent films I watch, maybe because of their meager budgets, have this constant rushed feel, like the filmmakers were charging through the production in order to simply get it done. It is generally the opposite with a Steve Sessions' film, where it's pretty clear that alot of time and energy has gone into the production.

About the only problem I had with the film is that none of the characters screamed, even when they were having various limbs sliced off. One of the hallmarks of the torture/horror sub-genre is that it allows the actors a chance to exercise their vocal chords. I'm not sure what was going on here, but this really nagged at me, the fact that nobody screamed in horror or agony. I noticed this same thing in "Dead Clowns" too, and I'm wondering if Sessions is doing this as an artistic choice or because he's afraid that too much noise might alert the police. Either way, the idea that a man might sit quietly as another man sliced off his hand, is perposterous. C'mon Steve, let your actors scream, let them just get it out! Regardless, "Torment" remains a must-see film for genre fans, and fans of Steve Sessions. Check it out!

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