Review: Warning!!! Pedophile Released (2009)

Directed by: Shane Ryan | 113 minutes | crime, drama, romance, thriller | Actors: Kai Lanette, Shane Ryan, Molly Wryn, Sean Cain, Joanna Angel, Kimberly Lynn Campbell, Rob Dale, Daryl Garbiso, Jerell Gray, Alyssa Hedrick, Elina Madison, Jeremy Williams

The sensational title “Warning !!! Pedophile Released “seems to indicate an outright exploitation or scandal film. Especially when you realize that the director is none other than the creator of the (largely unjustified) infamous “Amateur Porn Star Killer” trilogy, a lot of explicit sex and violence presented in realistic style is the expected staple of the film. Nothing could be further from the truth. That is to say, almost nothing. There is just one unpleasant rape scene in the film – which, however, is immediately a gang rape – and also one sequence with non-functional, naked that can be seen as an exploitation, but beyond that, “Warning !!! Pedophile Released ‘can be characterized as a serious, even meditative, drama about the (imperfect) legal system, stigmatization (of criminals), and boundless love.

Ryan appears with “Warning !!! Pedophile Released ‘wanted to make an experimental art film. But even though the film technically meets the requirements of such a film, it is anything but a successful example of this. Amateurism constantly radiates from the film. It must be said that it is an ambitious project by Ryan, and the themes of the film are quite interesting. An eighteen-year-old may not be supposed to have sex with a twelve-year-old, but if both parties agree and enjoy being together, how wrong could it be? Does anyone deserve to spend eight years in prison for this (and it is said in the film that they didn’t even get past kissing)? The film examines the repercussions on both parties. The girl becomes – because of what? – raped by a group of men and copes with this in a docile way. It seems to have little effect on her. Later on she uses sex herself to earn money, which seems to suggest a causal relationship.

The story of Ryan’s character, Malachi, carries several interesting elements, including the stamp of a rapist or pedophile that a person will always carry when allowed to re-enter the community. He is looked at with the necks by local residents, although you may wonder whether his actions were really that despicable. Interesting ideas, but the elaboration is often flawed and done with broad strokes. Ryan’s arguments are sometimes not clear enough and at other times very clear. Sometimes the choices are too easy. Because it is not difficult to feel sympathy for Malachi by making him practically innocent and merely a victim of the system. It is much more clever to allow the spectator to bond with a pedophile who is clearly guilty, as was the case in ‘The Woodsman’, in which a pedophile played by Kevin Bacon had to make it back in society after his imprisonment. .

Ryan has also overplayed his hand with this film. He simply has too little to say in individual scenes to justify playing time of almost two hours. For half of the film, the girl walks a bit bored along the track to contemplate her life and nothing happens to fascinate the viewer. Five, even ten minutes can be effective, but at some point something really needs to happen, even if only introverted but emotionally suggestive facial expressions. And the acting of Ryan, who has to portray the unstable convict, and almost the entire other cast (with the exception of lead actress Kai Lanette), are usually really cringe-worthy, with sleep-inducing or melodramatic dialogue that does not do the serious theme any good. The documentary-like, realistic-looking, style of the film, as in several of Ryan’s earlier films, often gets on the nerves. Especially when there is little else to experience in the film, these kinds of stylistic features stand out. Ryan switches, for purely aesthetic reasons, between color and black and white, a normal and a negative look, and uses too often short zoom in and zoom out movements, which have no function whatsoever. Nothing of value is revealed by these zooms, and the viewer is only drawn out of the experience. An experience that could have been better compressed into a half-hour film, omitting the lion’s share of the spoken text. Then the quiet scenes and different plot points might still have made an impression. Now “Warning !!! Pedophile Released “just a potentially interesting idea for a successful movie. This film just has to be made.