Chained Were They on Too Short a Leash?

           For those of you who might be confused when I say I am reviewing Chained I am referring to the 2012 movie directed by Jennifer Chambers Lynch. This is not to be confused with the 2010 movie titled Chained, aka Hobby Farm, or the 1934 movie Chained. All three of these are actually different movies, none are remakes of the others. Anyway, when it comes to Chained it is kind of a weird movie to me. I like it and every time I put it in my player I sit and enjoy it. However, it’s a disturbing movie and it doesn’t really find its way into my player all that often for this reason.

So, the story of Chained follows Tim, played by Evan Bird as a boy and Eamon Farren when he gets older, and his mother who go to the movies one day. After the movie they catch a cab to go home, but unknown to them the cab driver, Bob (Vincent D’Onofrio), is a serial killer who abducts women using his cab. Bob takes them back to his house where he kills Tim’s Mom. He then decides to keep Tim alive and use him as a slave around his house, having him help clean up after his murders, and also gives him his new name, Rabbit. As Rabbit grows up in this house of horrors Bob tries to mold him into his new protégé hoping that he will take over the “family” business. But is Rabbit really so broken that he will give in?

This movie was shot over the course of 15 days in different locations in Canada. The rush to make it could explain a couple complaints that many people have with this movie. For instance, director Jennifer Lynch had a brilliant idea for a twist ending that few people saw coming, but because she was short on time and her budget was running out the brilliant ending is rushed and sort of leaves you with new questions. I mean they reveal a big twist and conclude the movie in like the time span of five minutes. Good movie making? Most people think not. This movie went through many changes before it became the finished product in the video store. At one point Bob was supposed to keep pieces of his victims in jars, a little cliché if you ask me, and he was supposed to cut off Rabbit’s thumbs. Since they were trying for a R rating this was taken out of the script. There was also a version written where when Rabbit finally gets out of the house he sees that a whole neighborhood has sprung up around Bob’s house with small children and everything else completely oblivious to what has been happening behind his door. I couldn’t actually find why they scrapped this version, but it is gone. Also, all through production everyone involved called the film Rabbit and it was actually thought to be a better title for the movie. If you look at the movie Rabbit is a big part of it and the only reference to the title, Chained, is that Rabbit gets chained to the wall for a portion of the movie. Even when Bob mentions this though he says “shackled to this place”, not chained. Vincent D’Onofrio won an award for his role as Bob, the Fright Meter Award(2012) for best actor, and it would seem he truly deserved it for his very realistic portrayal of a disturbed serial killer. He just emitted the proper amount of crazy when the time was right. There were a couple times in the movie where, as a viewer, you get the feeling that the writers were stumped on what to do. This comes through as Bob, with no build up to it, is a master at throwing knives and one night as Bob is sleeping in his chair in the TV room Rabbit gets right in his face and seems to be screaming without making a noise. Other critics say that there is no comic relief at all in this movie, but those two parts made me chuckle a little. I have one last big complaint to make and that is how could the cops have no leads in the murders after over ten years? It just seems that in the real world someone would have made the connection that all these girls disappeared after getting in a cab. But I guess it would have been a bad movie if the bad guy got caught by the police. Anyway, overall this is a very good movie but after you watch it you may want to put in the happiest children’s movie you own to get rid of the grim feeling this movie leaves you with.

Check out the preview for yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uney3BbKyjU