Seven months after my last recent release review, I’ve finally been back to an actual theater. Theatres are open again, although there isn’t much to see yet, and I will be making the effort to see what I can and review it here. For my first trip back to the cineverse I thought I would be viewing a thriller, but it turns out to be more of a horror film.

Derrick Borte’s movie begins with a man in a pickup truck sitting outside a house at four in the morning. The man (Russell Crowe) finally goes inside the house, carrying a sledgehammer and a can of gasoline. Seconds later two people are dead and the house is on fire. The man calmly drives away; we have just seen a human being snap, perhaps deliberately, and we know that he is just getting started.

The man later has a confrontation with Rachel (Caren Pistorius) and her son Kyle (Gabriel Bateman), leading to his decision to menace her and her family to prove to her the meaning of “a very bad day.” Rachel is already having a bad day, but it is about to enter the realm of living nightmare. The violence and body count escalates as the man makes his persecution of her the point of his existence. Make no mistake, this is an ugly film. Taut and suspenseful, yes, but very unpleasant.

The filmmakers are, I think, examining where the point is where people can no longer take the incivilities and disappointments and betrayals of modern life, and yet this very specific case involves a man who generates no empathy because his story remains hidden. And as well produced as this drama is, and as well acted as it is (Russell Crowe is a pro, even while giving himself over to this persona of evil), it is also sensationalistic and exploitive. It is also sometimes boneheaded and illogical, as so many of these films are. If revenge flicks are your thing, you are bound to find it satisfying; I think most others will find this horrifying and off-putting. My rating: ☆ ☆ 1/2. 18 October 2020.