Rating of
2.5/4
What Is Your Breaking Point?
Chris Kavan - wrote on 07/28/13
Take a bit of Single White Female, Repulsion and The Brave One - mix it all together and you get Alyce Kills. Alyce (Jade Dornfeld) is not the most stable individual. She has a somewhat obsession with her friend Carroll (Tamara Feldman) who she wants to be - but also wants to be with. After breaking up and getting smashed, the two find themselves on the roof of Alyce's apartment building. After a bit of playful back and forth, Carroll winds up going over the top.
But surprise, surprise, she isn't dead - only wonderfully mangled (including the inability to speak). Alyce is freaked and, seeing no other option, winds up seeking out drugs to cope with the consequences of her actions. But that's just the start of things - the more she delves into this darker world, the more unhinged she gets - her job is on the line, she begins going after harder drugs and, ultimately, she just starts killing people. She also becomes much more empowered (going from the meek one to full-on Straw Dogs anger) but she also goes completely unhinged in the process. You can't go wrong with revenge and madness.
The movie is very violent - although it does take awhile to get there - but when it hits, baseball bats, bullets and general beatdowns ensue. The final 20 minutes or so are not for the squeamish, as there are plenty of pretty intense scenes, including a disembowelment that is quite disturbing. Some may find the leadup to the action a bit of a letdown, but I thought that Dornfeld did an admirable job of portraying a woman just completely breaking down. That is hard to capture and though she is a relative newcomer, I was happy with the results.
Other than Dornfeld, there isn't a ton of character development. The drug dealer (Eddie Rouse) is pretty much the only other character who is given much beyond a cookie-cutter appearance. Some familiar faces appear - James Duval (of Donnie Darko fame), Larry Cedar (who has a ton of TV and film appearances, including The Crazies) and the buff Yorgo Constantine (from Live Free or Die Hard and Fast Five) all make brief, but memorable, appearances.
Overall, the film might not break the mold in the genre, but the story and cast are strong enough to make this a worthy title for fans of horror.
