Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Films
Director: Alastair Orr
Writer: David D. Jones, Alastair Orr
Producer: Ariye Mahdeb, Chwayita Dlulane
Stars: Reine Swart, Russell Crous, Liesl Ahlers, Cameron Scott, Steven Ward, Paige Bonnin, Kayla Privet, Suraya Rose Santos, Michael Lawrence Potter
Review Score:
Summary:
Nine former friends must solve a mystery connected to their pasts when they wake up in the woods wearing explosive vests.
Review:
Press kits sometimes include “director’s statements” among their PR materials. These promotional paragraphs usually don’t amount to much more than fluff full of boilerplate marketing messages and rosy platitudes about the production.
The one Alastair Orr wrote for “Triggered” however, unexpectedly upsold me on his film. I wasn’t at all excited about another thriller where a mechanically-inclined madman with too much time on his hands devises a deadly revenge game full of torturous traps, and his backstabbing victims have to solve some mystery before being maimed or murdered. But Orr talked about “Triggered” with a frankness that showed he understood the tropes that go with this setup as well as the fatigue audiences feel toward these clichés. Then Orr tied these nods together with a declaration that he just wanted to make a down-and-dirty little horror movie. Here’s some of what he said:
“I set out to make a film that I would watch as a teenager. I didn’t want something serious or heavy handed. I wanted to make a fun as hell midnight movie that riffs on the ‘Battle Royal’ genre, and the types of kill game films that came before – SAW meets American Pie. I thought it would be hilarious to see sensitive, woke, SJW millennials being thrown into a grisly death match … We’ve seen countless contained thrillers where strangers wake up in a room and they have to work together to get out of, or kill each other before the clock hits zero … Although we encapsulate our story in something that feels like it’s been done before, we’re able to offer up a new and unique take on it which allows for a damn fun ride … You can either root for the good guys, or you can just sit back, relax and watch the detestable characters blow themselves up in the woods. The film doesn’t take itself seriously and the audience shouldn’t either. It’s quick, flirts with bad taste, and should be swallowed in one shot – like tequila at a frat party!”
Ignoring the possibly politicized potshot at “wokeness,” which is doubly weird because there’s not even a character in the movie I’d consider to be an SJW, I respect Orr’s bluntness. He frames your mindset for a simple, gritty, irreverent indie. If you read what Orr says, go into his movie, then come away surprised, disappointed, or upset that “Triggered” plays the way he presents it, that’s on you for not correctly calibrating your POV beforehand.
Even though his words preemptively downgrade expectations, Orr still doesn’t quite deliver the film he describes. “Triggered” bears the bones of an intentionally trashy Syfy movie made for a Friday night of boozy, breezy entertainment. But a vanilla approach doesn’t bring out the snarky personality baked into the silly script. “Triggered” ends up being about as plain as every other carbon copy “Saw” clone already out there.
This being a movie about nine obnoxious friends tearing out each other’s throats, we naturally have to spend the first 12 minutes on the requisite “party” scenes of red Solo cups, hookups, and dumb dithering about whether or not you can catch herpes from a mosquito. The actors, mostly newcomers who have trouble masking South African accents when their voices get heated, seem a little old to be five years removed from high school. They’re also impossibly photogenic like film friends often are. Some of them have such standardized good looks they become difficult to tell apart, particularly Kato and Ezra.
Long story short, the friends get gassed in the woods and wake up wearing explosive vests. Their former science teacher explains he wants vengeance for a past tragedy they’re connected to. He cryptically says the person who acquires the most time will be the last man or woman standing. The group doesn’t get any more detail than that because the teacher promptly shoots himself in the head. What they eventually figure out is that to add more minutes to a vest’s countdown clock, they have to take time from someone else. Let the cold-blooded killing begin.
What happens next is where “Triggered” starts running off remotely realistic rails. Of course the friends can’t remove the vests, their cellphones are smashed, and they’re stranded in the middle of nowhere. The nine of them find out about a detonator to look for later but until then, they simply run around the woods without any purpose or plan. It’s never clear what they’re doing or where they’re going except splitting up so scenes can have some sort of segmented structure.
The movie doesn’t want you questioning its lack of logic. The scalable entertainment value doesn’t benefit from thinking too hard about anything either. I know Orr says to not take “Triggered” seriously, which is terrific advice when watching a movie where, among other contrivances, one single gun miraculously falls into about seven different hands depending on the plot’s immediate needs. I just didn’t think dumbing things down would necessitate removing reality completely.
“Triggered” reinforces Orr’s philosophy by littering lines with purposefully inappropriate jokes. One guy figures a friend can’t be trusted because he puts ice in his milk. Another confronts a buddy-turned-murderer with, “I knew you were a psycho when you didn’t cry at the end of ‘Terminator 2’.”
Humor, or what passes for it, isn’t constant enough to completely qualify “Triggered” as a comedy. Snippy exchanges are just part of the DNA. One person confuses Jason Bateman with “American Psycho’s” Patrick Bateman. One woman laments the loss of her phone by idly musing, “the one time I don’t get insurance” as if that’s the most important worry after witnessing a suicide while wearing a bomb on your chest.
Some of these weird one-liners are funny. There’s just something off about the film’s overall atmosphere that pops of crass laughs come off cold instead of wickedly witty.
In another instance, one man distracts a would-be killer by revealing her boyfriend was cheating with her best friend. He proves it by tracing how four of them inherited herpes from each other (herpes is a running gag for some reason). The best friend then tries turning the tables by revealing she is pregnant. The furious speed with which these sudden soap opera twists fly should be fun. But jokes are simply said, not really sold. “Triggered” comes up with a flat flavor that waters down carbonated comedy almost instantly.
Alastair Orr fares better on technical execution than he does on balancing horror and humor to come up with a solid tone. He’s a no-frills director who makes a small project look bigger. “Triggered” takes place entirely in a dark forest. You can tell he’s working at a fast pace on a tight budget in a cramped space, yet quick camera movements and quicker cuts keep your eyes moving to prevent settling in on shortcomings.
“Triggered” may be derivative of movies like Rutger Hauer’s “Wedlock,” but it’s not a poor premise for a popcorn lark. Aware that it would be relatively empty-headed by design, I still found the film to be dumber and duller than anticipated. A savagely subversive satire of the ‘kill game’ subgenre could tap the vein of vicious violence this movie only pokes at. More indistinguishably common than legitimately cheeky, “Triggered” never finds the stylistic flair to turn itself into a standout.
Review Score: 45
It is moderately compelling in the moment, but it has a hard time holding up to even cursory scrutiny as far as believable “found footage” concepts go.