Already Dead (2007)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Sony / 2008
Directed by: Joe Otting
Written by: Joe Chappelle, Robert Lynn, David Alford
Cast: Til Schweiger, Ron Eldard, Patrick Kilpatrick, Geoffrey Pierson, Marisa Coughlan
Review by Vaughn Drake

What would you do if your son died at the hands of a killer? Conventional justice and the police can’t answer the bell, but money could get you the revenge you require? The villain is right in front of you? How far would you go? Beat his face to a pulp with your fists? Put a drill through his leg? Put a bullet through his skull?

If it sounds a little like Hostel, you’d be partially correct. Ron Eldard plays Thomas Archer, a very successful architect who loses his son in a home invasion. He thinks he’s getting by, but quickly realizes he can’t make it anymore. He finally breaks when the police inform him they have no clues on apprehending the culprit, and he takes a swing at a cop. Instead of pressing charges, the cops send him to a psychiatrist and he lets Thomas in on a big secret: there are other options rather than the courts and conventional justice. He offers vengeance for a price.

Told in flashbacks while on his way to the torture, during the torture and after the torture, it asks: What would you do if you realized you were torturing the wrong man?

More action movie than a torture or exploit, it is very entertaining, and holds up well under a second viewing. Eldard and Schweiger are great as the torturer and tortured. The constant flashbacks started to get a little annoying, and there’s a pretty big plot hole at the end that never gets addressed, but overall it’s well done and recommended.

• Screen Format: 2.35.1 Anamorphic Widescreen / Color
• Audio: English / 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: Cantonese, Chinese, English, French, Korean, Spanish (optional)
• Run time: 93 mins.

• Trailers
• Deleted Scenes

An interesting entry in the revenge sub-genre, and very watchable, but it’s far from perfect. Well worth a rent of a buy, but it can’t hold up to Death Wish, Payback: Straight Up or Thriller: They Call Her One Eye. It’s too bad the DVD special features are just about non-existent.

”Hostel with heart.”