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Reviews Counted:71
Fresh:5
Rotten:66
Average Rating:2.7/10
Consensus: Lacking scares or psychological insight, Captivity is a distasteful entry in the 'torture porn' subgenre.
Australian Theatrical Release:
May 8, 2008 Wide
US Box Office: $2,626,800
Synopsis: Top cover girl and fashion model, Jennifer Tree (ELISHA CUTHBERT) has it all - beauty, fame, money and power. Her face appears on covers of hundreds of magazines. At the top of her game, Jennifer... [More]
Starring: Elisha Cuthbert, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Laz Alonso, Daniel Gillies
Director: Roland Joffé
Without even calling into question the morals of a film which seems to exist only to depict the suffering of multiple women through hideous tortures, the film is still an empty mess, offering only a minor afterthought of an explanation to who is doing the
Top CriticA spirit-sapping exercise in female degradation fantasy.
Top CriticChillingly enjoyable.
The controversy may have piqued the curiosity of horror fans but the film is undeserving of any further attention, managing to be both nastily unpleasant and laughably ludicrous.
Joffe and his screenwriter Larry Cohen deserve a little credit for pointing up the psychological horrors where they can, but Captivity is still a grubby, exploitative film with an extremely guessable twist and universally dull performances.
Rarely have I found myself so uncomfortable viewing anything over such an extended period of time. There's nothing redeemable here. It's not tense or scary; it's just demented.
Does exactly what it says on the tin, grabbing viewers unawares and keeping them in its thrall for an hour and a half of non-stop, heart-pounding exploitation kicks.
The film itself is a very sorry and unthrilling piece of nastiness, peddling some pretty crass nonsense about what it imagines to be female psychology.
Top CriticEven in the fetid swamp of the torture porn genre, it stands out as a particularly awful movie.
It's a Saw rip-off with less smarts. (Take a moment, please, to allow that sentence to sink in.)
a well-trotted mess
I never thought I'd say this, but this movie gives torture porn a bad name.
Captivity the movie has been thoroughly eclipsed by Captivity the marketing.
Top CriticRoland Joffé's feeble attempt to swing with the latest horror-flick fashion for gratuitous sensation is embarrassing
Top CriticPolished and atmospheric, but utterly vacuous.
Once in a while, mainstream America is exposed to a movie for which there is no earthly purpose.
It sure beats hearing you have cancer.
The film itself is sordid, unpleasant viewing, as promised, yet more tedious than terrifying.
More dull than upsetting -- repetitive than worth condemnation.
It flunks because it’s one of the daftest, dullest films I’ve seen in an absolute age.
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