Mark Reviews Movies: HELD

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | April 8, 2021

Held is a horror movie about torture, and while that description may put a certain kind of movie into the minds of some, directors Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing's movie isn't about blood and gore. This is more about psychological torture, and at its most thought-provoking, screenwriter/star Jill Awbrey's story is also about a form of sociological or cultural torture.

Yes, Awbrey's screenplay has a point to make, and by the time the movie finally gets around to making that point clear, one wishes the filmmakers hadn't evaded that line of thinking for as long as they do here. The meat of this story—what's really going on behind the scenes, what it means for these characters, what it has to say about the hidden thoughts of certain individuals and a pervasive way of thinking within society—becomes little more than a plot twist. When the time arrives for the movie to deal with those issues directly, it's more concerned with wrapping up matters in a simple, generic way.

The story revolves around Emma (Awbrey) and Henry Barrett (Bart Johnson), a married couple looking to get away for the weekend at a remote, luxurious rental home. Everything seems fine. Emma, a writer, arrives at the house first, expecting her husband to show up in the morning after he's finished with work.

We get a tour of the house, mainly noting a locked door, a slant in the kitchen floor, and the home's elaborate security system. All of these, of course, will come into play later, and from early on, it's telling that the filmmakers are primarily concerned with the mechanics of details and mysteries that will drive the plot going forward.

The marriage seems fine, too. Flowers show up at the front door. Henry appears that night instead of the next morning.

There is a bit of tension. Henry is a widower, and the specter of his late first wife comes up when his son calls with news of being engaged. A little affection from Henry while lounging on the patio is dismissed by Emma, who clearly has something on her mind.

They go to bed, a little resentful and a bit dizzy from a nightcap of whiskey. In the morning, Emma awakens to coffee, flowers, and a card on the nightstand. Henry, though, has been asleep the whole time. Neither of them knows how Emma ended up waking up in different clothes than she was wearing upon falling asleep.

From there, the movie doesn't waste any time getting into the terror that unfolds for the rest of the story. The TV in the living room shows footage from hidden cameras inside the house. A voice comes over the home's speakers, telling the couple they must obey his orders. The security system activates, trapping Emma and Henry inside. If either of them disobeys or tries to escape, a little device implanted under their skin in the night gives them a painful shock.

The fascinating thing here is the twisted game the couple's captor plays. The mostly unseen man forces the two to play a happy, overly traditional marriage: the husband opening a door for his wife, the wife smiling and thanking him, the husband relaxing while the wife cooks dinner, an evening of—in the most discomforting scene—coerced passion. There are secrets, naturally, having to do, not only with the motives and identity of the captor, but also with this marriage. Henry learns a couple of things about Emma—a secret she has been hiding from him and an old trauma. The husband's reactions, especially to the secret, don't say much good about him.

The character work falls too much by the wayside for this tale to convince us that it really cares about this relationship or these people as individuals. After those initial scenes of the troubled marriage and the bond being put to assorted tests, Awbrey's screenplay becomes a series of payoffs to multiple early setups—the slanted floor, the driver (played by Rez Kempton) who brought her to the house (She left a notebook in his car, so it's inevitable he'll return), the not-to-surprising appearance of Emma's secret in the flesh, whatever's being hidden in the undiscovered part of the house. There's a big revelation, explaining why the captor's game is as specific as it is in its methods and philosophy, and that's when the movie's ultimate point is also revealed.

The twist is clever, in a creepy and overtly political way, but that initial surprise and the implications of the reveal also serve as the end of the movie's exploration of the idea behind it. The rest of the story becomes a hasty series of cat-and-mouse games, chases, battles of wits, and fights.

It's a letdown, because there's clearly much more on Awbrey's mind with this material and, especially, with the big twist. The core idea of Held—about the horror of being trapped by and within old, outmoded notions of marriage and gender—is anything but conventional. The movie's approach to that idea, though, is completely routine.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products