Minor spoilers follow, but nothing you won't have learned from reading the DVD synopsis.
It's a shame this has been marketed as a "Se7en meets Saw"-style torture porn serial killer movie, because while it rips off huge chunks of both films it's really a whole lot more than such a summary would suggest.
Like all the best revenge thrillers, W Delta Z takes the concept and puts it under a microscope, examining its very nature and challenging audience expectations at every turn. There truly are no heroes and no villains, we only have Melissa George's inexperienced cop to ground us and provide some frame of reference as our sympathies shift back and forth between Stellan Skarsgård's grizzled Detective and Selma Blair's tortured serial killer. Issues of right and wrong are constantly blurred.
All this praise of its intelligence is not to say gore hounds will feel short-changed. There are a couple of genuinely disturbing moments, even if the most harrowing sequence mercifully happens off camera.
Blair is excellent as the tortured serial killer; her vicious determination, obvious madness and stark vulnerability all expressed beautifully in her performance. Ashley Walters is the other stand out. A former member of British rap collective So Solid Crew, he's since moved on from turning out awful records and has emerged - in this at least, I haven't seen any of his other film work - as a fine young actor with a great deal of promise. Skarsgård and George are less successful but still do decent work.
It's not entirely successful and its low budget shows. The distracting, annoying direction is too needlessly erratic and flashy for material that would be better suited to a more subtle approach. While that's a major flaw the script and performances go some way to overcoming it, but not far enough to make it a totally satisfying watch.
W Delta Z is a unique and intelligent picture, it raises fascinating questions about justice, morality and even love itself. And not a lot of modern horror movies can say that.
It's a shame this has been marketed as a "Se7en meets Saw"-style torture porn serial killer movie, because while it rips off huge chunks of both films it's really a whole lot more than such a summary would suggest.
Like all the best revenge thrillers, W Delta Z takes the concept and puts it under a microscope, examining its very nature and challenging audience expectations at every turn. There truly are no heroes and no villains, we only have Melissa George's inexperienced cop to ground us and provide some frame of reference as our sympathies shift back and forth between Stellan Skarsgård's grizzled Detective and Selma Blair's tortured serial killer. Issues of right and wrong are constantly blurred.
All this praise of its intelligence is not to say gore hounds will feel short-changed. There are a couple of genuinely disturbing moments, even if the most harrowing sequence mercifully happens off camera.
Blair is excellent as the tortured serial killer; her vicious determination, obvious madness and stark vulnerability all expressed beautifully in her performance. Ashley Walters is the other stand out. A former member of British rap collective So Solid Crew, he's since moved on from turning out awful records and has emerged - in this at least, I haven't seen any of his other film work - as a fine young actor with a great deal of promise. Skarsgård and George are less successful but still do decent work.
It's not entirely successful and its low budget shows. The distracting, annoying direction is too needlessly erratic and flashy for material that would be better suited to a more subtle approach. While that's a major flaw the script and performances go some way to overcoming it, but not far enough to make it a totally satisfying watch.
W Delta Z is a unique and intelligent picture, it raises fascinating questions about justice, morality and even love itself. And not a lot of modern horror movies can say that.