Twisted review
A schemer gets more than she bargained for when she encounters a genuinely mad scientist.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Twisted
Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman
Written by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer
Starring Djimon Hounsou, Lauren LaVera, Neal McDonough, Alicia Witt, Gina Philips, David Call and Mia Healey
Twisted Review
Reading the plot summary of Twisted leads your mind down a specific path. It appears to be the story of a pair of con artists who run afoul of someone capable of exacting their own revenge. That sounds like a satisfying little story of bad people getting what they have coming to them…even if it leaves who to root for in a bit of a moral quandary. Twisted doesn’t follow the path you’d expect from reading the synopsis…but it does have a lot of that moral quandary to offer…and a terrifically mad scientist at the center of it all.
Paloma (Lauren LaVera) and Smith (Mia Healey) play the promised con artists. They flip properties that they don’t own and escape with first and last months’ rent before the mark realizes they’ve been duped. Smith is concerned that the police are getting too close to them…but Paloma is confident in their ability to stay one step ahead. Things go sideways when Paloma attempts the scam using a brain surgeon’s estate…though not in the way the plot summary would have you believe.
Dr. Kezian (Djimon Hounsou) couldn’t care less about Paloma’s scheme. To him it’s nothing more than a justification to treat her as a lab rat. An amateur monster has wondered into a real monster’s den. Cue the moral quandary. There are no “good” people in Twisted. Well…unless you want to root for the police that are attempting to track down Paloma and Smith. The story puts them into position to become unlikely heroes if they can find them in time.
Dangling potential outs for Paloma is one of the things that Twisted does best. The police want her in jail…a big upgrade to being chained in a mad scientist’s dungeon. Smith quickly realizes something has gone wrong and sets her own rescue attempt. Kezian’s boss (Neal McDonough) has always been wary of the way Kenzian approaches his alleged breakthrough…wanting things to be done by the book and with full approval. Even Kezian’s assistant, a former patient brought back from brain dead to somewhat functional, could provide Paloma with an unlikely ally. The clock is ticking…but can anyone outmaneuver the brilliant doctor Hell bent on proving his work on human subjects?
This is where Kezian’s character goes from mad scientist (which he completely is) to a more complex kind of monster. Kezian isn’t just obsessed with his work…he’s haunted by it. His wife (Alicia Witt) was a brilliant doctor in her own right. Since her death he has been consumed by an idea. An idea that has been blocked by more traditional routes. An idea that can see people live on long after their time has come. But an idea that no human being is going to sign up for. What luck that Paloma and what Kezian views as her waste of a life has fallen into his lap.
Twisted shows off some of what Kezian is attempting as other unwilling test subjects enter his lair. Namely, some of those people that are trying to find Paloma. Kezian is a tough man to topple. He’s brilliant, driven and resolute in his belief that his madness has a greater purpose. Hounsou brings him to life wonderfully. Few actors could so effortlessly pull off a character that is so brilliant…and so intimidating. Hounsou towers over Paloma and anyone else who gets in his way both physically and mentally. We see Paloma is brilliant in her own right before she finds herself in Kezian’s trap. But she isn’t in Kezian’s league. As a mind or as a monster.
That last bit helps in allowing you to root for a character that we meet as a villain herself. She’s duping people out of their money and seems completely unphased by any of it. Twisted has to push things far enough past the point of believing she deserves what’s happening to her that you can’t help but root for her. It helps that LaVera is great as usual in another emotionally and physically demanding genre role. She excels at playing both the charming con artist and the terrified captive. Like Hounsou…casting LaVera continues to be a great move no matter what move you’re making.
While much of Twisted is confined to a make-shift mad scientist laboratory underneath Kezian’s home…the movie does a good job of breaking it up with actions from the outside. We spend time with the police attempting to track down the scheming couple. They slowly begin to discover their quest might be leading them towards a deeper evil than they expected. We also follow Smith as she tries to figure out how to get her partner/lover out of danger. The multiple arcs add to a package that is at its best when Kezian is doing mad scientist things as Paloma watches in horror. There’s something classical about the whole thing. And it leads to a pretty killer ending. What more can you ask for?
Scare Value
Twisted is in great hands with Hounsou and LaVera taking turns at the wheel. The story runs into a few patches where finding someone to root for is a bit difficult…but it eventually settles into an effective mad scientist story. Kezian is a proper mad scientist too…complete with his own Igor, dingy underground lab and a warped sense of reality that intrudes on his thoughts constantly. He’s also utterly brilliant…and that makes him seemingly unstoppable. It’s good stuff.
3.5/5
Twisted Link
Rent/Buy on VOD from Amazon and Fandango at Home
