THE TREATMENT (2014 - Dutch)

Studio:       Artsploitation Films
Director:    Hans Herbots
Writer:       Carl Joos, Mo Hayder
Producer:  Peter Bouckaert
Stars:     Geert Van Rampelberg, Ina Geerts, Johan van Assche, Laura Verlinden, Dominique Van Malder, Kyan Steverlynck, Roel Swanenberg, Ingrid De Vos, Michael Vergauwen, Circe Lethem, Brit Van Hoof, Tibo Vandenborre

Review Score:

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Summary:

A police inspector haunted by the childhood abduction of his brother becomes obsessed with the disturbing case of a dangerous serial kidnapper.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Chief police inspector Nick Cafmeyer recalls the abduction of his brother Bjorn 25 years earlier by revisiting taunting letters left for him by original suspect Ivan Plettinckx. Questioned and released at the time of the crime, Ivan’s ongoing harassment of Nick has continued ever since.

Nick investigates a crime scene alongside commissioner Danni Petit. The police rescue Alex and Cindy Simons, a husband and wife who were drugged and held captive for three days, although the unknown perpetrator escaped with the couple’s young son Robin. The crime scene is soaked in urine and a reference to “female toxin” is found written on the wall.

Nick interviews Cindy Simons at the home of her family friend Bela Nercessian. The police canvass the area interviewing neighbors, including Roland Claeren, a mentally unstable man found rummaging through discarded items near the crime scene. Swim instructor Chris Gommaer appears nervous over the police presence. Nick interviews Steffi Vankerkhove, who has just moved into the area with her husband Hans and son Joff. Nick repeatedly hears of an urban legend mentioning a troll who enters homes through bedroom windows and eats children. Danni and Nick try interviewing Alex Simons in his hospital bed.

Nick searches the park with the police and finds Robin’s dead body left up in a tree, bound and half-naked. A bite wound is discovered on the boy’s back. After learning that Robin died of thirst, Nick realizes that the killer was forced to abandon the boy when he was interrupted, thus leaving his plan unfinished.

Nick learns that the troll reference originated from an unsolved case in the nineties. Nick meets with the detective from that case and confirms that Ivan Plettinckx was a suspect.

Nick sneaks into Ivan’s house and finds a doctor’s letter revealing that Ivan was diagnosed with untreatable cancer. Nick finds Ivan preparing to hang himself and watches the man commit suicide after a cryptic conversation regarding the truth about Bjorn’s disappearance and a man who bites. Nick returns home to find a hand-drawn map left for him by Ivan.

Elsewhere, the perpetrator drugs the Vankerkhove family and imprisons them separately inside their home.

Nick follows Ivan’s map and unearths a buried box of sex toys and homemade VHS tapes of child pornography. In the videos, Nick sees a woman with a distinct heart tattoo on her shoulder and is able to spot a license plate number in the background.

Nick traces the clues to Nancy Lammers. Nick forcibly questions Nancy about her brother Ronny’s involvement in the child pornography ring and the disappearance of his brother Bjorn, but Nancy refuses to cooperate.

An interview with Mrs. Nercessian reveals that Alex Simons had his name changed. Investigating his real name uncovers that Alex served prison time for assaulting a minor. When the DNA found in Robin Simons later comes back as a match for Robin’s father, Nick concludes that Alex Simons bit and raped his own son. Meanwhile, Nick has a tense encounter with Chris Gommaer, who mentions the troll while willingly identifying himself as Robin’s swimming instructor.

Nancy Lammers is revealed to be secretly raising Bjorn in captivity, and has been ever since Bjorn was hit on the head and made mentally handicapped by Ivan. Nancy offers to tell Nick the truth about his brother and about Ivan in exchange for money and the destruction of the videos implicating her in the child pornography ring. However, Danni finds Nick’s drawing of the tattoo and independently traces it to Nancy, arresting her before Nick can make the exchange. Before Nancy is taken away, she binds Bjorn with rope and hides him in a trailer.

A forensic analyst reveals that although Alex Simons’ DNA matches the sample found in Robin, Alex’s teeth do not match the bite wound. Nick revisits the crime scene and finds rope, lending credence to the story about someone climbing into windows. Nick remembers the swimming instructor and finds out that an ex-wife and a court order forbid Chris Gommaer from seeing his son. Nick brings Chris in for questioning. Chris tells Nick about the troll and about being in a situation similar to Alex Simons. Nick revisits Alex and ultimately discovers that the “troll” forces fathers to rape their own sons under threat of murdering the family.

Nick tries questioning Nancy while she is being transferred. She mentions that the biter pisses himself. Chris reveals that the perpetrator is impotent and once bragged about slashing a policewoman with a knife. Nick traces the clues to Roland Claeren. The police investigate Roland’s lair and discover that Roland believes a female toxin causes his impotence. Using urine as a nullifier is part of his self-prescribed treatment.

Nick goes back to Alex looking for a lead. When Alex mentions missing bottles of milk, Nick remembers something said to him by Steffi Vankerkhove when he first interviewed her.

As Steffi watches in horror while Roland masturbates and forces Hans to rape Joff, Nick arrives at the Vankerkhove home. Fights and chases ensue between Nick and Roland until Danni arrives and pulls Nick off Roland after nearly beating him to death.

In the aftermath, the Vankerkhove family is rescued. While recovering, Nick turns over the VHS tapes to Danni in order to build a solid case against Nancy. However, Bjorn remains captive and alone inside Nancy’s trailer without anyone knowing to even look for him.

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Review:

Despite the passage of 25 years, police inspector Nick Cafmeyer is no less haunted by the abduction of his brother Bjorn than he was as a boy.  Longtime suspect Ivan Plettinckx makes sure that a venomous knife is always piercing Nick’s heart by continually leaving taunting letters and pig bone piles on the inspector’s front lawn as part of a perverted game of “you can’t touch me.”

When a series of couples are found imprisoned in their own homes and their children sexually assaulted, an urban legend about a child-eating troll is the first clue pointing towards the perpetrator’s identity.  Certain that Ivan Plettinckx is somehow involved, and clinging to a desperate hope that the truth behind his brother’s disappearance might finally be revealed, Nick consumes himself with solving the mystery, only to discover a situation more horrifying than anyone could have imagined.

On paper, Belgian thriller “The Treatment” is not a mold breaker.  Only a detective on the eve of retirement is a more clichéd police character than a lone wolf lawman dogged by his past and obsessed with a strangely reflective present-day case.  With devices like clues hidden in plain sight and sloppy police work fabricating pauses in plot progression, “The Treatment” sometimes plays like a higher stakes episode of “Without a Trace” bearing moderately elevated production values.  Yet even though the story itself does not always remain unassailably strong, the telling of it certainly does.

“The Treatment” captivates through exceptional atmosphere.  Combine the rainy gloom of “The Killing” with a “True Detective” thread of emotionally taxing grimness and you have an idea of the heavy mood created.  This world is as depressingly oppressive as the terrifying crime residing at its center, with cast and camera putting every pound of that gravity into the audience’s psyche.  It is an unsettling feeling of psychological filth certain to affect invested viewers in ways where the movie remains tattooed on the mind’s eye long after its conclusion.

While time is of the essence in capturing the criminal before he can strike again, the runtime doesn’t have the same use for urgency.  A muted rhythm accentuates the dour tone, although director Hans Herbots slows down the 125-minute duration more than necessary, often extending sequences through slow motion or by ambling headfirst into dead end moments.  “The Treatment” leans heavily on its slow-burn police procedural aspect, featuring plentiful scenes of seated interviews, standing interviews, solemn pondering under overcast skies, and countless instances of the lead detective driving to get the maximum ROI out of the production’s car mount rig rental.

No matter the contrivance of cinematic convenience, Herbots’ superb craftsmanship still supersedes shortcomings just as perfect casting and adroit portrayals transcend a stereotypical roster of red herring suspects and traumatized victims.  A “Silence of the Lambs”-ian structure to both script and presentation creates an inescapable attachment to the setting that less careful crime thrillers are unable to deliver with safer, more conventional methods regarding similar setups.

A word of warning is required for those uncomfortable with themes of child abduction and pedophilia.  While “The Treatment” is not designed to deliberately titillate in those arenas, kidnapping and rape play key and consistent roles.  Moments when Nick reviews an uncovered cache of child pornography in particular are not salaciously exploitive, but such scenes are highly suggestive to the point where discomfort and disgust may mar overall entertainment value for some.  Prepare accordingly or avoid entirely depending on disposition.

Were it made in America with a mainstream studio sensibility, “The Treatment” might resemble the type of James Patterson-esque murder movie that dotted multiplexes following the mid-nineties success of “Seven.”  But a gut-punch approach towards realism instead grabs the audience at the throat through mesmeric psychological suspense.  Far from flawless, “the Treatment” is nonetheless daring and daunting in its darkness while remaining resonating in its impact.

NOTE: The film’s Dutch title is “De Behandeling.”

Review Score:  75

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