Review: Villa Captive (2011)

Directed by: Emmanuel Silvestre | 82 minutes | crime, drama, thriller | Actors: Liza Del Sierra, Dario Lado, Shalim Ortiz, David Perez-Ribada, Derek Evans, John Corby, Ashley Price, Patricia Rosales, Xavier Tchili

When a film goes wide with the commendation “… Starring the well-known French porn actress Liza Del Sierra who makes her mainstream debut here under her real name Emillie Delauney…” then you know you shouldn’t expect too much in the way of acting. Such a text creates different expectations. How pornographic is this rape-revenge movie really?

“Villa Captive” is all about Lucy Lust. This French porn actress in America is busy raking in some money and then retiring. Her manager doesn’t like that and wants to keep her working, but Lust is adamant. She stops. Point. The woman decides to enjoy her stay in America and takes it in a luxurious villa. Unfortunately, a criminal gang is also interested in her and Lust is captured. Her 17-year-old boy next door comes to her rescue.

To answer the question in the first paragraph, “Villa Captive” is by no means pornographic. Except for a few topless shots, the film is pretty decent. Also in the field of violence it is not too bad. There are a few raunchy scenes in it, but they come across as pretty tame when you compare them to other low budget horror films. The acting is not very strong, but compared to other genre films not that bad at all. Delauney is quite nice and certainly doesn’t cut a mud figure.

However, “Villa Captive” is not a high flyer in the genre. What the film lacks is an appealing character. Nobody is really sympathetic and empathic. Lust is arrogant and unkind. The criminals are selfish machos and Lust’s boy next door seems very friendly, but when pushed to the limit, he suddenly turns into a sadistic monster. That character development comes out of the blue. In addition, a mentally deprived nephew is allowed to trot (seemingly an obligatory character since the iconic genre film “I Spit on Your Grave”) who also quickly gets on your nerves.

A film without appealing characters quickly gets boring. If you don’t care what happens to the characters, not much is left. A good horror movie captures that with a cool villain and sadistic scary scenes, but “Villa Captive” doesn’t have that. This film starts very slowly and also ends disappointingly and abruptly. Little gore, nudity and tension break up this film. Sin.