Director – Jason Rosenblatt (For Dad, Toxic Zombie: Embrace the Horror)
Starring – Angela Nordeng (1000 Ways to Die, Jurassic City), Tommy Harrington (Dick Strange: American Made, The Maestro), and Jason James Richter (Ghost in the Graveyard, The Last Rampage)
Release Date – 2016
Rating – 4/5
A month or so ago my friends from MVD hooked me up with a giant box of movies to review. Most of them were new releases from SRS Cinema with a random release from Trionic Entertainment with the rest being movies from Wild Eye. I had a huge SRS marathon and recently reviewed the Trionic release so it was time to dig into some of these Wild Eye releases.
The first one I tossed on the chopping block is the 2016 crime thriller Vicious. It looked like a wild ride and I couldn’t wait to check it out. I want to thank Wild Eye and MVD for sending this one over.
**Spoiler Alert** The story for this one follows Belle (Nordeng) who is working as a stripper while she puts herself through law school. When one of the patrons gets a little too close and follows her home she begins to stress and fear for her life. That is until she meets and older gentleman who pays her very well to talk. She opens to him and lets him into her life a little more than she should have resulting in her worst fear becoming reality. **Spoiler Alert**
I went into this one knowing it wasn’t a horror flick and I found myself fucking loving it. The cast, the story, the cinematography. I found myself falling in love with this one the longer I watched it. I know some of you genre fans will write this one off but I fucking loved it and if you will give it a chance I’m sure you will too.
The acting in this one is fucking phenomenal. Angela Nordeng is fucking brilliant as the stripper working through school. She’s a strong female lead that delivers a wide emotional range that really made the film for me. I could really see her pulling off the final girl role in a slasher. It’s also worth noting that she is absolutely gorgeous. She is perfectly cast for this role as if it was almost written for her. I was also impressed by Tommy Harrington. His character has many layers and he pulls them off brilliantly. His innocence at the beginning of the film before slowly changing into the controlling and calculative maniac is nothing short of amazing. The same can be said for the supporting cast. There is no weak links in this chain.
The story for this one throws you for a loop and is one that goes in a full circle. The premise could easily be written into a horror film but they way it was approached delivers so much character development and death that no horror film can deliver. What we get is a strong character piece with great pacing and just enough twists and turns to hold your attention without giving too much away at the beginning. I didn’t care for the red herring near the beginning of the film but once the movie runs it course you see exactly why it was done that way.
Finally, the film has several deaths but they are nothing that really stands out. If you are looking for memorable and unique kills then you will need to sort out another film from the Wild Eye catalogue for that. Overall, Vicious completely blew my mind. This is one of the best acted indie films I’ve seen in a long time and the story pulls you in. I cannot recommend this film enough. Do yourself a favor and check it out!
