Martin Bradley "Chained" is a thoroughly depressing and deeply unpleasant psycho killer movie that is almost redeemed, though not quite, by a brilliant performance from Vincent D'Onofrio as the serial killer who kidnaps the young son of one of his victims and keeps him prisoner until adulthood, making him an unwilling accessory in his crimes. (D'Onofrio and Eamon Farren as the boy are basically left to carry the film on their own). It's certainly well-made; there's no doubting that writer/director Jennifer Chambers Lynch has talent but you can't help feeling it could be put to better use. It's the kind of film that could develop a cult following but this is one cult I won't be joining.

Bryan Kluger Jennifer Lynch's 'Chained' is an unapologetic psychological thriller. Some have billed this as a horror film, however that's not the case. 'Chained' will take you out of your comfort zone and leave you talking about it for days. And although it will be in your 'serial killer' film collection, this particular movie has a different quality and lasting psychological effect that will haunt you the next time you decide to take a cab.'Chained' starts off with Tim, a 9 year old boy and his mother (Julia Ormond), who are dropped off at the local cinema by dad (Jake Weber). We instantly see how cool Tim's mom is by letting him see the horror film instead of the new kids movie. Once the film is over, by the instructions of dad, they are supposed to take a cab home instead of the bus. They hail a taxi driven by Bob (Vincent D'Onofrio), who seems like your typical cab driver.Soon after they get in the car, and a couple of missed turns, Tim and his mother realize that Bob is not really a cab driver, but a serial killer and that bad things are about to happen. Bob drives Tim and his mother to his remote house with no cellular signal. Bob takes Tim's mother into the house and leaves Tim in the car as Bob violently rapes and ultimately kills her. Bob is confused with what to do with this 9 year old boy, as he only kills women, and decides to keep Tim around to cook and clean. And by clean, I mean clean up the brutal and bloody murders Bob leaves in his house, starting with his own mother.After a couple of failed attempts of escape, Bob chains Tim to the house and leaves him enough lag to get around the home completely. This made me think of 'Black Snake Moan'. We fast forward a decade into the future and Tim is still chained, but is now a teenager (Eamon Farren). From here, we see Bob try and teach Tim how to be a serial killer in a sick and twisted father-son type fashion. Here we see Bob treating Tim more like an heir to throne rather than a prisoner. There is even a very creepy scene where the two play Go-Fish with a deck of victim's licenses.This film differs from the rest of the serial kille films, as it doesn't rely on showing bloody and ultra violent murders, but rather shows a steady paced storyline with intense psychological trauma. This film was originally titled 'Rabbit', due to what Bob calls Tim, but was later changed to 'Chained'. Lynch did a great job of filming the beautiful outdoor scenery of green pastures and bright yellow colored cab, and then transitioning into a dirty brown and yellow interior for a large chunk of the film. It's as if we were seeing the surroundings rotting from start to finish.D'Onofrio does an amazing job as Bob. He has come a long way from Leonard Lawrence in 'Full Metal Jacket' and Thor in 'Adventures in Babysitting'. His twisted father-son relationship with Tim is so disturbing, that I wouldn't be surprised if he won some kind of award for his role. Farren and Ormond also turn in great performances. I'm sure this was a difficult film to shoot, considering the subject matter, and they all rose to the occasion. 'Chained' is a movie you should own. It's a conversation piece that you will be showing your cinephile friends and talking about over and over again. Even with its strange twist ending, 'Chained' will linger around for days to come.

chaos-rampant Lynch tried here to do something bolder than anything you'll find on the horror shelf these days so on that count I applaud. Chilling as the title implies, but with a sensitivity and desire to immerse the viewer in illusion rather than merely jolt. I like the effort.A boy goes with his mother to the movies on a sunny afternoon, entering the place of illusion. They watch a grisly horror movie his dad told him not to. They come out on the other end ('in one ear and out the window') to be whisked to a remote house where real horror now is going to take place. The place is marvelously Lynch-esque, a bland suburban one-story house in the middle of flat fields that drown the screams.This is all inside the mind where the horrific impulse first grows. The erosion of self as being chained to a wall and having to serve a surrogate father who thinks people are merely pieces to rearrange. The familiarity chills, how inside the horror the boy must still have a life, so that an offering of a candybar that he can eat in front of the TV challenges our own grip next to the boy's.And then shift again to real life so that when captor and victim go out for their first spree together, the real night they and we encounter hums with all that was lost for the boy and all that still awaits, a teenager who could be doing teen stuff that night. (can he still? is it too late for that life?)Some potent stuff here. But there's a last minute twist that completely ruins it. Lynch simply isn't her father. The twist makes perfect symbolic sense if you go back to the start, it's planted to be that way and deliberately sustained by the author; a father who hides something horrible from the child. But it makes no sense as life. This is what Lynch Sr. has been working towards his whole career, more and more fluid slips to and from illusion, because it's all the same desiring mind whether awake or not. Here Jennifer yanks us by the arm. It's still more imaginative than most horror these days so you might wanna stop by one day.

helenc80 The movie is intended to present a horrific topic in a palatable and informative manner. It's very difficult to illustrate such an aberrant and violent side of inhumanity without getting soiled. That being said, the writer did an amazing job of focusing more on the topic than the gore that such acts would present in reality. I also agree that the gender of the writer has no bearing on the execution or content of the movie. Films, books, art give us a glimpse of what is going on in our society ( subversive or overt), that we may not necessarily be aware is happening around us or even in a more remote area. It also provokes thought and discussion, and hopefully (at some point) remediation if the topic merits such. I give the writer a thumbs up. I also think the actors did an excellent job at portraying prime evil juxtaposed by innocence (the son). The ending? Well that caught me by surprise. It was a good twist.