Arriving late for Halloween gorehounds, “Triggered,” despite its buzzword title, has nothing to do with making viewers feel safe and everything to do with giving them a good splatter.
Directed by Alastair Orr, the movie, filmed in South Africa but (judging from a license plate) set in the Pacific Northwest, begins with a group of friends, about five years out of high school, enjoying a getaway at a forest campsite. Soon an unexpected guest crashes the reunion. It’s Mr. Peterson, their old science teacher! And does he have an experiment for them.
Having strapped explosive vests to their chests, Mr. Peterson tells them only one will leave the woods alive. Some wearers have longer countdown times than others. But any one of them can steal minutes by killing. The setup unleashes the gang’s atavistic tendencies, anguished confessions and speculation on Mr. Peterson’s motives, along with geysers of blood that even spritz the lens.
Initially tough to tell apart, both visually (the film is mostly set at night) and in terms of their non-personalities, the kids fall on a spectrum from the killing-averse to the enthusiastically murderous. On that second end is Kato, who relishes the permission slip to slaughter (though not as much Russell Crous, the actor playing him, appears to relish the part). The other end includes Rian (Reine Swart), the former valedictorian.
Melding “Saw” with “The Hunger Games,” “Triggered” wins no points for originality or distinctiveness, not least of its cookie-cutter characters. But its relentlessness, and the gusto with which it embraces its mandate to make a mess, is tough to resist.
Triggered
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Rent or buy on iTunes, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
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November 05, 2020 at 07:00PM
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‘Triggered’ Review: School’s Out Forever - The New York Times
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