Today, I watched The Executioners, and I can’t seem to get it out of my head. It begins with a group of female friends heading to a lakeside home for a girls’ weekend. As night falls the women are disturbed by someone knocking on the door. Three men with painted faces rush in and a night of terror begins.
Viewers are forced to watch not one, but three rapes and two sexual assaults, as well as the torture of both women and men in this movie.
I fully understand that the writer-director Giorgio Serafini (Game of Death) wanted viewers to sympathize with the women as they turned the tables, but damn. In my opinion, it went too far.
One in three women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime. That statistic is scary enough as it is, why anyone would want to use multiple graphic rapes as a plot point is beyond me. We are not talking about an act that we think a character experienced, the viewer is forced to watch the acts in their entirety. I’m not even going to get into the scene where one man is forced to rape another man with a big black dildo.
Understand, I’m not talking about five minutes of the film, the sexual assault scenes lasted at least one-third of the movie. That’s a long time.
Yes, there’s a big twist to the story, but it’s pretty much given away in the first fifteen minutes. The twist and plot are completely overshadowed by the violence in the movie. And aside from the violence, the movie holds little else.
I take back what I said, this isn’t a horror movie at all, it is torture porn. If Serafini is looking to get publicity for the movie by making it notorious, he accomplished it in my opinion, though it may backfire and have a negative effect on his career.
I spoke with star Natalie Burn about the movie and she confessed that it’s not the type of movie she would watch. You can read the full interview here.
Am I going to recommend you run out and see this movie? No, I’m not. In fact, I recommend that you avoid this movie at all costs, especially if you have experienced a sexual assault.
The Executioners now out on Digital and VOD from Lionsgate and stars Natalie Burn, Jemma Dallender, Rachel Rosenstein, Justin Fischer, Anthony Belevstov, Michael Santi, Anna Shields, Fernando Soto Jr. and Todd Thompson.
If you were a victim of sexual assault or rape please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline, your local police department, and a healthcare professional or support group.
