Rupture (2016): Review

Rupture is a 2016 sci fi thriller film. Directed by Steven Shainberg (Secretary) and written by Brian Nelson (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night), the film stars Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Prometheus) and Peter Stormare (Fargo, Bad Milo). The film debuted at the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

 

The film follows Renee (Rapace), a single mother who finds herself kidnapped on the way to a skydiving day out. She awakens strapped to a bed in a mysterious facility where she is subjected to a series of experiments designed to produce excessive levels of fear. Briefly able to escape her room, she discovers there are many other victims being subjected to similar experiments by the sinister staff of the facility. The staff eventually reveal themselves to be inhuman beings who achieved superhuman powers by pushing themselves past the perceived limit of mental trauma in a process they call “rupturing”. Renee becomes converted to their cause but draws the line when they try to convert her son, leaving her position as the “mother” of a new race in question.

Rupture takes a number of ideas done better in other forms of fiction and cobbles them together in a half baked waste of a film. The central premise of torturing victims until they reach enlightenment, or transcend, is so blatantly lifted from the French masterpiece Martyrs (2008). Furthermore, the idea of locking someone in a room and slowly introducing their worst fears is even more blatantly lifted from 1984 (just replace rat mask with spider mask here). This wouldn’t be so bad if the film actually committed to some graphic violence or atmosphere, as those influences would warrant, but the most you get here is some seriously ropey effects for the lumpy headed alien species that made me laugh out loud.

Unfortunately the script is nearly as ropey as the effects, disappointing given Nelson’s previous work, and nonsense lines about “fear altering DNA” and “scaring you past death” are delivered with as much enthusiasm as they deserve. What’s most disappointing about this film is that Noomi Rapace is being completely wasted after appearing in several high profile films that promised to launch her career outside of Sweden. Add to that the completely miniscule role for fellow Scandinavian heavyweight Peter Stormare, and this all becomes a very frustrating exercise. Fleeting moments of suspense and impressive technical direction do appear from time to time but not nearly enough to save the film from being laughably inept.

If you feel like you’ve seen this film before, you definitely have, and there is very little on show to distract from the highly derivative premise. Frankly, almost everyone involved in the film is better than this and would be best off moving on very swiftly, which for Rapace will be Alien: Covenant in a few short months. Have you ever been so scared that you turned into a lumpy headed alien? No, me neither!

* 1 Star

 What did you think of the film? Did you like the premise?