Review by Nia Edwards-Behi
If I may, before I begin to review this film properly, get a complaint out of the way. Whoever designed the cover of this DVD needs a pat on the back for having seen the cover for the I Spit on Your Grave remake and a big fat medal for thinking ‘oh hey I can rip that off for that DVD cover commission I got even though the image has got shit all to do with the film!’ Seriously, watch the film, and see how the woman on the cover actually looks more like Camille Keaton – never mind Sarah Butler – than poor Michelle Page, who actually stars in Rogue River, the film supposedly on the disc. I’d applaud them if I thought this was a genuinely exploitative attempt to cash in with the similarity; however, this just plain stinks of laziness.
Okay, and breathe. I could go on, but hey, it’s just a DVD cover, and luckily, Rogue River is not the junky rip-off the cover would have you believe. It’s nothing like I Spit on Your Grave, anyway, and while it’s not without several major flaws, it’s certainly an enjoyable enough film, in so much as a nasty little offering such as this can be enjoyed.
Rogue River begins with Mara (Michelle Page) hoping to scatter her father’s ashes at a riverside he would take her to as a child. There she meets Jon (Bill Moseley) who advises her that regulations state she can’t scatter remains in the river. Jon seems helpful enough, and when Mara discovers her car has been towed away, he offers to drive her to his house before taking her back into town. At Jon’s home, we meet Lea (Lucinda Jenney), Jon’s wife, busily preparing dinner. She instructs Mara to stay, and, as I’m sure every single person watching the film will gather… things can only go downhill from here. Jon and Lea are certainly not who they seem, and Mara faces great suffering at their hands.
The main issue for me, with Rogue River, is that it simply tries to do too much. By cramming in every single ‘ew, gross!’ revelation about Jon and Lea, the films risks becoming a little bit too pantomimic, and the monstrous acts they subject Mara to lose a little of their edge. Similarly, by subjecting Mara to such a variety of ordeals without fully establishing her as a particularly sympathetic character, it’s hard to be fully emotionally involved in the film. Kudos to the film for its inclusion of, y’know, an actual story, but it is sadly under-developed, which, given the film’s slender 78 minute running time, seems like an issue that could have been addressed. The pacing’s not quite right either, the narrative’s apparent second half seemingly slotted into fifteen minutes. Instead, we get kidnap! Torture! Incest? Torture! Sexual assault! Argh, incest! in a manner that’s not quite as punchy as those exclamation points might imply.
It’s certainly a film that ticks boxes, and, overall, it’s a watchable film. Michelle Page makes for a decent enough heroine (except for when she screams…that is one annoying scream), and Moseley and Jenney making a suitably sinister duo. Moseley in particular stands out, his more underplayed moments as striking as his more signature rant-mode. A few key moments fall a little flat, thanks to some not-quite-right-direction and, er, that scream, and unfortunately that includes the film’s bloody climax. There are several plot holes and questionable character motivations in the film, too, but, all in all, these flaws merit an eye roll rather than a reach for the off-switch.
Rogue River is worth a watch, and won’t take up much of your time. It is released to DVD and Blu-Ray on 16th January from G2 Pictures; at the time of writing, the special features for this disc are to be confirmed.