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PLEDGE
Director: Daniel Robbins Cast: Zachery Byrd, Phillip Andre Botello, Zack Weiner, Aaron Dalla Villa, Cameron Cowperthwaite, Erica Boozer, Jesse Pimentel, Joe Gallagher, Jean-Louis Droulers, Melanie Rothman MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:17 Release Date: 1/11/19 (limited) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 10, 2019 The premise of Zack Weiner's screenplay for Pledge comes from that unique way of thinking in horror-movie terms: seeing a certain scenario and imagining that such a situation would be the perfect opportunity to be murdered. The situation is pledging for a fraternity (technically, a "social club" in this instance), and of course, young, dumb college students throughout history have done stupid, youthful things in order to join a frat. Here, we have to buy that these particular college-aged guys would endure what's obviously too much. This incredibly short and rather grotesque thriller might begin the extreme aspects of this club's "hazing" rituals a bit too early. We've heard horror stories about what has happened in such rituals, and the movie's protagonists apparently have, too. They also know that time and awareness have changed these practices, yet after only putting up a minimal fight, all of them are branded with a scalding iron almost immediately upon starting the initiation process. Then, for reasons that can only be chalked up to the necessity for horror movies to show us even more horrific things, they keep going through the ritual. This really, really tests an audience's willingness to believe that certain people would, of their own free will, subject themselves to all kinds of humiliation, indignity, and even torture, simply to feel like a part of something. The basic idea is that Justin (Zachery Bird), Ethan (Phillip Andre Botello), and David (Weiner, giving himself the tone-deaf jokes)—as well as Ben (Joe Gallagher) and Sam (Jean-Louis Droulers), who arrive at the initiation before the main trio—are such nerdy losers that just the taste of a booze-and-woman-fueled party will turn them into willing-enough victims, simply for the promise of more of the good stuff. With a trio of psychotic masters (played by Aaron Dalla Villa, Cameron Cowperthwaite, and Jesse Pimentel) orchestrating the hazing, the results are inevitably gruesome—from the branding, to being feed a "soup" of rats decimated by a blender, to seeing what happens when a trapped rat is introduced to heat and a human abdomen, to outright murder. Director Daniel Robbins presents all of it for what it essentially is: a bloody geek show. The guys eventually fight back, of course. By that point, though, Pledge hasn't given a single character enough of a brain or a spine to care. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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