The Retaliators

Gory and ridiculous, this genre hopper manages, sort of, to succeed as both a revenge thriller and a sicko horror movie.

An ungainly horror mashup that works in pieces, most notably during its climatic free-for-all, but not as a whole.

This is a resolutely sexist film, where all women are basically either passive victims or strippers in a club where Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe spins the discs and slaps them on the bottom for fun.

With a lack of any real solid main character energy or perspective, it becomes muddled as to which player the audiences are meant to follow and align themselves with.

A bloody revenge flick that doesn’t quite land on even footing, but proves for fine genre escapism for those that have the stomach and appreciation.

The Retaliators is another holiday action horror film to rest beside Die Hard and Krampus in your collection.

The dark tale of revenge and finding our line in the sand makes for an entertaining but imperfect film.

The idea of how far grief can drive a person is an interesting idea that is never fully explored. When things start to get hyper violent that the script is most comfortable with itself. This makes for an uneven tone, but it also leads to a better film.



Had it been the film it is at the end, from the start, then it would be a minor masterpiece of OTT exploitation horror&#59; as things stand, it just about redeems itself in ways which are engaging, gory and imaginative enough.

Balances multiple storylines, keeping each individually interesting until finally weaving them together in an explosive and violent final act.