BITS '16 Film Review - Capture Kill Release

A fuzzy disjointed cutting in and out 911 call opens the action of Capture Kill Release. A male voice cuts in and out with the only decipherable phrase being "come quickly". The scene shifts to a young couple trying out a new video camera having a seemingly casual conversation until a closer look reveals that the pair are talking about picking up and killing a random person for the thrill. The pair next move into research mode. They pick up tools at a hardware store, drive to a spot to scout out potential victims ruling out seniors, minorities and children. They check their home for the perfect spot to do the dismemberment making sure that their tub can hold the victim and test the their tools on raw cuts of meet. All the while they film all of their actions relating to this project.

After the theoretical preparations are complete, Farhanj heads to work for an important meeting with his boss while Jen stays home deciding on her own to move their project forward. She brings home a victim that she had a good encounter with before springing him on Farhanj thus giving him no opportunity to back him out of back out of the pact.

Directors Nick McAnulty and Brian Allen Stewart present a film based on ideas that could easily be floating around peoples heads and even occasionally verbalized in closed quarters but taking that next step to research, scout, purchase equipment, plan and execute is normally not the end result. Jen is clearly the driver of the action leaving Farhang to follow agonizing along due to his strong attachment to his wife.

The special effects of Mitchell Stacey deserve special mention. The prosthetics are so good that it appears that the pair are really cutting into human flesh, the blood flow looks authentic and when they take the steps to remove identifying items from the victim the sequences are truly stomach turning. The writing is crisp featuring a slow burn build to the pure psychosis of our heroine.

Farhang Ghajar is well cast as the male lead bearing his name. He is deeply in love with his wife, thinking that the early conversations are just talk then is faced with the reality of his wife's obsessions first in an extreme act of cruelty then escalated when he comes home to the victim sitting at his dinner table. Jennifer Fraser as Jen is strong as the driver of the story. She has been on camera and making films since her youth somewhat explaining the first person hand held found footage angle of the production. He anger is first evident during an encounter with a rich businessman then builds into full on psychosis.

Capture Kill Release is a gut churning, suspenseful ride that sprints to red hot confusion, tension and chaos in the third act. Our protagonist is almost paralyzed by the events as they unfold with his wife playing puppet master to all involved. It's a smart piece of horror filmmaking that I can highly recommend.

*** 1/2 Out of 4.

Capture, Kill, Release Nick McAnulty / Brian Allen Stewart | Canada | 2016 | 96 minutes.

Tags: Found Footage, Kidnap, Scout, Hardware Store, Drill, Axe, Body, Blood, Dismember, Affair, Video Camera.