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TRIGGERED
Director: Alastair Orr Cast: Reine Swart, Russell Crous, Liesl Ahlers, Steven John Ward, Cameron Scott, Paige Bonnin, Suraya Rose Santos, Kayla Privett, Michael Lawrence Potter, Sean Cameron Michael, Craig Urbani MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:30 Release Date: 11/6/20 (digital & on-demand) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 5, 2020 It's a shame to see a premise as diabolically clever as the one in Triggered so undermined. The setup has a group of nine friends, camping in the woods, forced to fight each other to the death, until there's only one survivor. That part of it isn't too novel, but the new part of the premise is that all of them are wearing an explosive vest with a digital timer ticking down the minutes and seconds until detonation. The real kicker is that someone can steal time from a dead "player." David D. Jones' screenplay is mostly about how these characters, each one with various levels of amity and animosity toward the others, end up revealing their true natures under the unfathomable pressure of looming death, orchestrated by someone out for revenge. Some of them seem like jerks from the start, such as Ezra (Steven John Ward), who's dating Cici (Kayla Privett) and possibly cheating on her. Jones twists our expectations in a way that's about as clever as the setup. We figure Ezra will be so self-centered that he'll be fine with ending the lives of his friends, but before things go down, seemingly poor Cici reveals that she's a vindictive one, enjoying the sight of her boyfriend squirming from her accusations. Then there's the case of Kato (Russell Crous), who's introduced as the goofy comic relief only to become a pure sociopath when his jokes might be silenced forever. The steadier characters—quiet Erin (Liesl Ahlers), whip-smart Rian (Reine Swart), and her likeable-loser boyfriend PJ (Cameron R. Scott)—at least give us a few for whom to root. We believe and appreciate such turnabouts, because no one can really say how he or she or, for that matter, anyone would think and behave under such circumstances. We can assume, though, that most people wouldn't be coming up with cheap one-liners and pop-culture-based jokes to spout while your friends are being killed and exploding all around you. The major problem here is one of tone, which Jones and director/editor Alastair Orr never quite settle. The movie is ruthless in its depiction of people betraying, manipulating, and killing others for self-preservation, but Triggered also tries way too hard to be clever in its zingers and relatable in its melodrama. It's a thriller that promises to go for the throat, only to offer a few tickles. Copyright © 2020 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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