Film Review: Villa Captive
Review by Marc Patterson
I don’t know how to put this, but since you’re all pretty used to reading my rantings by now, I should just come out and admit it without shame. I can’t say this is the first time I’ve seen a French rape/revenge flick that’s starred porn actresses. Remember that outing from 1999 called Baise Moi? It’s not rhetorical. Please, I’ll take some raised hands here. Well, hot damn, here we go again.
Villa Captive is a film being handled by One Eyed Films, a semi-newer distribution company that specializes in independently produced Latin American cinema. They’ve recently taken off with a handful of horror titles and for them, this one is a foray into a more international scene, which is never a bad thing.
Shot on a Canon 5D in Miami by French filmmaker Emmanuel Silvestre, who has made his living to date as a porn director, Villa Captive stars AV actress Liza Del Sierra, star of such films as Elastic Asshole 9 and Desperate Sex Wives. Here she appears credited under the name Emilie Delaunay. This is Emilie’s first outing into the world of non-porn film and, all things considered, she’s surprisingly convincing. It helps that Silvestre doesn’t demand she tap into a persona so far outside of the world she knows.
Lucy Lust (Del Sierra) is burned out on the porn biz. She came to America to make a dime, but she’s finding it increasingly boring, repetitive and not paying out the huge dollars she was hoping for. While on the set of her latest film, she unexpectedly announces her retirement during an interview. This decision stirs up a world of shit with her agent and on their way to a newly rented villa in Miami, she gets in a huge fight with him. He splits and she’s left alone. Across the way, the owner’s teenage son, Jeremy, an awkward and geeky kid with braces (think Ben Stiller in There’s Something About Mary) takes care of basic housekeeping duties around the villa and thanks to his worldly pot dealing buddy Dan, quickly recognizes their new tenant as Lucy Lust. Soon he and his friends are catching up on her pornos while she literally sunbathes topless less than maybe fifty feet away. Weird, but realistic. Lucy and Jeremy soon strike up an oddly creepy relationship. It seems like that whole “I’m fresh out of the porn biz and want to fuck a normal dude, even if he’s a minor” and “Oh my god, I could score with a porn star/perfect 10” complex explored in such films as The Girl Next Door and She’s Out of My League. Thank God things don’t go there!
Well, having a porn star living next door wouldn’t be so bad, except Jeremy has a bad choice in friends. His pot dealing buddy tips off his crew from the garage that Lucy Lust is in town and the bad boys decide a good B&E is in order. After all, she’s got to be loaded with cash. When Jeremy and Lucy return home from their little date night, they walk in on the party going on and a simple robbery turns into a horrifying nightmare.
While the comparisons to I Spit On Your Grave are obvious and stated up front in all the promotional material, I felt like Villa Captive shared a bit more in common with Last House on the Left. (You can take your pick of the original or remake for either film). Our gang of miscreants had no premeditated intentions of rape and murder when they broke into Lucy’s villa. It just seemed to work out that way. Kinda the same way that Krug and the gang never realized they were walking in on Mari’s family. Regardless, the comparison will be made, and repeatedly so, in every review you’ll read, so it should be noted that the level of intense violence in Villa Captive in comparison to either film is scaled back considerably, with the best stuff left to our imagination as the camera closes its eyes and looks away. That’s not to say this isn’t cringeworthy. It’s just that you’re not going to see any heads graphically getting beat into a ball of messy grue, even though it’s happening. Considering we had to wait a significant amount of time for the pace to pick up I found the payoff to be a bit underwhelming, to say the least. And here’s the reason for that…
Honestly, and this is no slight against Silvestre, but this conundrum is what frequently occurs when a non-genre filmmaker dips their toes into territory brimming with a native population nurtured on these violent films. Sadly enough, I could probably write a book on all the rape/revenge films I’ve seen to date which have been made over the past thirty plus years. I imagine that the majority of my readers could likely contribute quite knowledgeably as well. We all know that I Spit on Your Grave gets the most notoriety, and as a result becomes the shining center piece for any newcomer to the genre to emulate. Thing is, if that film is the only point of reference, as it appears to be here, the filmmaker ultimately is not giving horror fans anything we haven’t seen before, time and again. And that’s the real crux of the situation. Villa Captive is caught in a catch twenty-two. It’s not big budget enough to stand on its own for a mainstream audience, therefore it loses the ability to attract viewers who lack a larger frame of reference. On the other side, the only audience to which this is marketable is cult film diehards like us, who have a plethora of similar films we could name at the drop of a hat. How this stands up against all of them boils down to one thing – Villa Captive has Liza Del Sierra, and none of the others do. Not only that, but Liza Del Sierra gives a highly energetic and commanding performance as a take no bullshit woman that will have you second guessing as to her true past.
On a positive note, and to further the sentiment, Del Sierra’s presence isn’t a simple gimmick. Sure, there’s no denying her as a major draw to would-be viewers, mostly of a young male demographic, but Silvestre has constructed a film that doesn’t parade around her status. In fact, if anything it’s downplayed and understated. Viewers who have no clue who Del Sierra is would likely never guess that she’s really a porn star and not just playing one here. The fact that she performs under her assumed “real name” Emilie Delaunay is only further proof of this. Secondarily, this film does not inject the story with eroticism. Any idea that rape is sexy is completely removed from the narrative, furthering the irony of putting a porn actress on the center stage. This ain’t some 42nd Street wank fest. And you have to give real props to a porn filmmaker who intentionally removes sexuality from the equation and chooses to play it straight.
Here’s why you should check out Villa Captive: it’s a solidly constructed, independently made film from a voice well outside mainstream circles, and, to a degree, popular genre circles. There is an undeniable freshness to the story that, while it isn’t brimming with originality, does have a voice of its own. You’d have a hard time guessing it was shot on a Canon 5D camera, which again is testament to Silvestre’s technical skills. If you go into Villa Captive expecting it to be a high octane violence-fuelled horror film, something like I Spit On Your Grave, then I think you’ll be disappointed. But, if you put aside any preconceived notions of what this film should be, you’ll end up wickedly satisfied.
Currently Villa Captive does not have a US Distribution deal. No word on when this film will see festivals or DVD/Blu-ray.
CAUTION: ** SPOILER ALERT** Trailer Embedded Below is HEAVILY weighted with spoilers.
Villa Captive TRAILER #1 from Panic! Cinema on Vimeo.
