Perkins' 14 (2009)
7/10
Enjoyable enough if still flawed overall
2 October 2019
After searching years for his abducted son, a small-town cop by a psychotic local and is now part of a team of similarly-minded people raised to seek revenge on the town for years of neglect and must protect his family and the town from their sinister agenda.

This here wasn't that bad of an effort. Most of what works here are the films' use of the small-town atmosphere which is evident throughout the first half. The way the central mystery unfolds, from the central backstory of the child kidnappings that are plaguing the town and how the case affects him, set this off rather nicely with a creepy air and rattles on through the main half of the film which works nicely alongside the scenes with the daughter out partying with friends. Once it moves beyond that into a fantastic extended action/stalking sequence through the town where the deranged killers are showing to ravage the town in numerous high-energy affairs, from the attack on their friends at the remote hideout to the rescue at the motel as well as the small side-encounters along the way. This leads into the rather frantic and stellar sequence of the group trapped in the police station where the ferocity and cunning of the killers are put to great use for these scenes, the frantic barricade procedures to keep them out on the escape attempts that are failed spectacularly while all taking place inside the dimly-lit, claustrophobic location and a cramped, confined setting. Alongside the fine splattery gore, these here are what helps this one out over it's few minor problematic areas. Frankly, the biggest issue here is that the first hour of this is pure, unadulterated boredom merely through the continued insistence and focus on material not in the slightest bit interesting. Although this features a fine backstory about the history of the town and the killers, the rest of the film isn't exciting at all by the utterly inane side-plots which do nothing for this one. The troubled and fractured family life that takes up the majority of this one is insanely dull, as going through it all isn't that interesting with all sorts of cliched tactics to display this, from the alcoholic father, the unfaithful wife and rebellious daughter which has all been done so often there's nothing special about these characters and that leaves this one with an incredible mountain to overcome that is given an admittedly decent attempt to right it through the action later on. Likewise, that leads into the utterly idiotic idea later on where his judgment gets clouded unnecessarily into believing something that puts him in danger against his survival instincts. Had the beginning featured material we cared for, this one would've been really good.

Rated R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, a mild sex scene, violence-against-children and heavy underage drinking.
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