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 point to an outright exploitation or scandal film. Especially when you realize that the director is none other than the creator of the (largely unjustly) infamous ‘Amateur Porn Star Killer’ trilogy, lots of realistically presented explicit sex and violence is the expected staple of the film. Nothing turns out to be less true. That is, almost nothing. There is exactly one unpleasant rape scene in the film – which is immediately a gangrape – as well as one sequence with non-functional, nude that can be seen as exploitation, but outside it can be ‘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 indeed 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 can it be? Does anyone deserve eight years in prison for this (and the movie says they didn’t even get past kissing)? The film examines the impact on both sides. The girl becomes – as a result of what? – raped by a group of men and deal with it in a docile manner. It seems to have little effect on her. Later she uses sex herself to get money, which seems to suggest a causal relationship.

The story of Ryan’s character, Malachi, carries several interesting elements, including the stamp of rapist or pedophile that a person will always carry when allowed to re-enter the community. He is looked down upon by local residents, although you may wonder whether his actions were really so despicable. Interesting ideas, therefore, but the elaboration is often flawed and is done with broad strokes of the pen. Ryan’s arguments are sometimes not clear enough and then again obvious. Sometimes the choices are too easy. For it is not difficult to feel sympathy for Malachi by making him practically innocent and just a victim of the system. It is much smarter to let the viewer 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 to society after his imprisonment. .

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