DERANGED (2012)

Studio:       MTI Home Video
Director:    Neil Jones
Writer:       Oscar Carrion, Marcia Do Vales
Producer:  Marcia Do Vales, Keven Kane
Stars:     Marcia Do Vales, Craig Fairbrass, Victoria Broom, Natalia Celino, Tabitha Quitman, Pablo Olewski

Review Score:

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Summary:

Four friends staging a private bachelorette party at a secluded villa find themselves stalked by a mysterious figure.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Silvia, Mary, and Anna arrive in Spain to have a bachelorette party with their college friend Gabriella, who is planning to marry their mutual friend Michael. On the drive to the private villa where the celebration is to take place, Gabriella stops at a restaurant and meets briefly with family friend Anthony.

At the villa, Gabriella introduces the girls to Anthony’s vicious guard dog Max. While Gabriella checks on the dog during dinner, the other three girls talk behind her back about Gabriella being a terrible actress doomed to fail in her career and in her marriage. It also comes out that Mary had a crush on Gabriella’s fiancé Michael, Anna slept with him in college, and Silvia had sex with Michael recently.

Gabriella returns with a wound on her arm that she claims came from Max. A male stripper arrives and the party begins. Gabriella collapses as the other three girls grind on the stripper. The stripper takes Gabriella’s pulse, calls an ambulance on the phone, and continues performing CPR before declaring Gabriella dead.

While Anna and Silvia panic over what to do, Mary goes upstairs and has sex with the stripper while high on pills. Anna and Silvia try to use the phone and see that it was never plugged in. Realizing that the stripper faked the ambulance call and presuming him to be involved in Gabriella’s death, Anna and Silvia go upstairs and knock him unconscious.

Mary joins Anna and Silvia in trying to escape the villa, but Max gets loose and threatens to attack if they leave. With Max distracted, Anna makes it to a car outside and finds a handgun in the glove box. Suddenly, she is attacked by a shadowy figure. The gun goes off and Anna stumbles out of the car before dying.

Mary and Silvia suspect that Anthony is responsible for the murders. Anthony surprises the girls at the villa and professes his innocence. The stripper tells the girls that he was hired to stage the CPR and ambulance call because Gabriella wanted to prove her acting abilities to her friends.

Mary and Silvia go to check Gabriella’s body and discover a latex appliance on her neck that faked Gabriella’s dead pulse. Gabriella suddenly kills Mary, causing Silvia to flee.

Silvia tries to escape the villa with the stripper. Gabriella stabs the stripper, but Silvia makes it outside. Gabriella confronts Silvia and explains that she wanted to eliminate the girls so that they would not cause trouble for her marriage. Silvia finds the handgun on the ground and uses it to shoot Gabriella.

Silvia finds the wounded stripper and shoots the dog. Gabriella reappears and kills the stripper with an ax. Gabriella chases Silvia and the two women have a confrontation that ends with Gabriella killing Silvia. Covered in blood, Gabriella rests on a swing set, but Anthony is shown to still be alive.

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Review:

Conceding the benefit of the doubt, it is entirely possible that Marcia Do Vales is a talented actress when performing in her native tongue.  Whatever that language is, it is not English, which makes a large part of the “Deranged” viewing experience a demanding exercise in deciphering her thick-accented dialogue.

Make no mistake.  As the movie’s top-billed actress, co-producer, and originator of the story, “Deranged” is most definitely intended to be a vehicle for Ms. Do Vales from start to finish.  That star turn goal is also at odds with what the movie can accomplish creatively.  With that vanity extending to the lone image of Do Vales on the box cover and an opening montage showcasing her as the centerpiece, “Deranged” reveals its hand to the table before any other cards are even dealt.

Four somewhat-estranged college friends gather at a remote Spanish villa for a low-key bachelorette party celebrating Gabriella’s upcoming wedding to Michael, a friend they all share in common.  Being a secluded cabin miles from civilization and without cellphone reception, the location naturally invites a shadowy figure to stalk the premises and begin terrorizing the women one at a time.  But it is when their stalker’s true identity is revealed that things take an unexpected turn.

Or rather, things would have taken an unexpected turn, had the spoiler-heavy poster art and first scene of the movie not already given away the twist.  When Gabriella drops dead at the 30-minute mark, which is also how long it takes for something to finally happen in a movie that is just 74 minutes, the audience already knows that things are not as they seem and it is only a matter of time before Gabriella rises to exact her demented revenge.

Joining Marcia Do Vales in the cacophony of difficult to understand voices is a melting pot of actors and actresses whose accents include British, Scottish, Welsh, Spanish, and Brazilian.  Do Vales trumps everyone in the “what’d she say?” department while the others require only a modest amount of effort to sift through their sounds.  At least the voices keep the viewer engaged as an active participant in the game of paying attention.  Though there is still the possibility of feeling like a senior citizen while reaching for the volume control and contemplating turning on English subtitles for a movie that already is in English, or something vaguely like it.

The acting only has so far it can go.  Roles are limited to a foursome of stereotyped personalities too disparate to ever be friends in real life.  There is the church-going prude who wears glasses, the promiscuous vixen constantly in party mode, and the average in-betweener who balances everyone out.  In case those character assignments are ever unclear, the script is there to hammer them home repeatedly.  The sexpot, for example, cannot go one scene without talking about joining the mile high club, teasing the virgin, inquiring about everyone else’s sex life, or comparing box springs to those of other beds she has banged in.  Ok, I get it.  She’s a slut, can we move on?

It’s a shame that what little “Deranged” has in content undermines a fairly accomplished technical production.  Set design is polished.  Cinematography looks good.  Yet with that gaping hole of an out in the open revelation, the movie never offers a true idea of what it might have delivered had its secret been properly kept under wraps.  It does seem like there was potential for a clever surprise that might have gone to a more entertaining place had the elements that went into bringing the picture together been handled tactfully.

Somewhere in the architecture of “Deranged” was a worthwhile concept for a thriller.  It may have needed another helping hand from a dark streak of black comedy, but a cleaner execution, a sleeker script, and an intelligible lead could have made all the difference in making “Deranged” better than it is.

Review Score:  50

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