As The Retaliators opens, a voiceover speaking about justice in an unfair world sets out some of the film’s themes. It also, by the by, introduces us to the film’s approach to its themes: things move around from one thing to another, first a dour drama, then a glimpse at organised crime and finally an exploitation movie, with elements of torture porn along the way. As such, we don’t return to the voiceover; it’s there, box ticked, and onwards.
We start with two teenage girls from out of town (town being somewhere in rural New Jersey) and, if you are straight away thinking, ‘oh no, I bet there’s no phone signal’, think again: they’re reading an actual paper map, but a tyre blows and needs a change. By the way, the blaring music and clear indications that at least one of these girls might be into metal (green hair and piercings) is just one of the ways the film frontloads its metal credentials, as for reasons which have little to do with the finer points of the plot, The Retaliators boasts several metal musicians in its cast, and the obligatory metal OST. Anyway, God alone knows why this girl tries to change a tyre with her friend still sat in the vehicle, but she has little time to ponder this, and nor do we: someone drags her off into the trees; there seem to be some…zombie assailants, but a guy appears with just enough time to say nope, they’re not zombies. They sure look like it, and act like it, but we can only assume that we will find out what’s going on here later. Onwards.
We then meet what is bound to be our chief protagonist, a pastor (Michael Lombardi) raising his two daughters elsewhere in NJ. Since losing his wife, he has thrown his all into giving them a good upbringing, even if this means retreating from conflict to set a good example for them. This is a horror film, folks: it’s clear that his ‘turn the other cheek’ ethos is going to be tested, and so it is. This all happens soon after he allows his eldest, Sarah (Katie Kelly) to drive herself to a Christmas party, and she encounters a Bad Man (we have just been shown enough to know he is one of those). The consequent fall-out from this horrible encounter sees some soul-searching and some very unorthodox detective work – taking the lead from the disillusioned detective assigned to his case (Marc Menchaca). Meanwhile, Bad Man’s criminal fraternity are doing some unorthodox detective work of their own to find him; the issue here will be, how far is our pastor willing to go for revenge, and what will become of him?
Does that sound garbled? That may well be down to my limitations as a writer, but it feels tricky (or even somehow dishonest) to structure things in such a way that reads any clearer than the above. The Retaliators is an immensely uneven film, but not just ‘uneven’ within one genre; it ducks and dives between different horror genres altogether, and still varies the pace along the way. It feels as though there are a dozen different films in here all vying for their fifteen minutes, when they could each have had ninety and made perfect sense. This race to do All The Things means that much of the characterisation is curtailed; it’s hard to feel invested in cardboard characters, even when they get messily pulped. But Lombardi is very good in his role, and whilst it is frustrating when his story gets subsumed beneath Detective Jed’s own story arc, both of these men do lend some much-needed gravitas to the goings-on. The presence of metal musicians in the extras is neither here nor there, unless you happen to know who you’re looking at; I largely didn’t, with the exception of Tommy Lee, but churlishly, you’ll probably work it out by assessing how well various people can or can’t act. You could also be churlish and suggest that spending plenty on these guys, but cutting corners by including freebie clips from the public domain go-to Night of the Living Dead, speaks to questionable filmmaking priorities. That was a film intended to turn a profit, too.
But here’s the thing. As the film switches modes yet again, settling to some degree on a kind of overblown exploitation revenge horror, it gains focus and yes, becomes a lot more fun. In fact, it manages to drag things together for a grand finale, although it’s a hell of a climb to get there. Had it been the film it is at the end, from the start, then it would be a minor masterpiece of OTT exploitation horror; as things stand, it just about redeems itself in ways which are engaging, gory and imaginative enough. True, it is in some bizarre race with itself to cram in as many elements as it can, but in amongst those, The Retaliators has some interesting ones. This may be more luck than judgement, but thank god for it, as it just about makes things feel worthwhile.
The Retaliators (2021) is available now.