Director: Steven C. Miller
Starring: Ryan Hartwig, Fabianne Therese, Dana Ashbrook, Ray Wise, Derek Mears, Lisa Rotondi, Boyd Kestner
Running Time: 82 minutes
Certificate: 15
HOME ALONE meets FIRST BLOOD is how THE AGGRESSION SCALE is billed; remarkable, given it features neither Macaulay Culkin or Sylvester Stallone. Not to mention the fact it isn’t anywhere near as good as either of those films. Director Steven C. Miller (AUTOMATION TRANSFUSION) has, on paper, tried something different with this movie even if the premise does sound familiar. Bellavance (Wise) is released from prison on bail and aims to flee the country with $500k. The only trouble is his goons – led by Dana Ashbrook (TWIN PEAKS) – have been unable to recover the money that has been stolen by a mystery thief. Elsewhere, Maggie (Rotundi), her daughter Lauren (Therese), and Bill (Kestner), and his son Owen (Hartwig) move in to a lovely house and try to play happy families, trouble is the house was bought with the cash stolen from Bellavance so the crew rock up to get their boss’s money back.
The vital component of a film of this style is tension and to try and keep the audience guessing; THE AGGRESSION SCALE unfortunately fails on both counts. The narrative plunders towards an inevitable climax, with no danger of originality. Characters are stereotyped to within a inch of their lives: goon who is a bit slow, leader of goons who is trigger happy and has delusions of grandeur, but worst of all is the complete lack of any dread. The story pits two teenagers against four mob guys for much of its duration; however, there is never the feeling that they won’t come out on top, or that the antagonists won’t pull the trigger when they have the chance, and they get outsmarted by tactics signposted so early it’s almost insulting. Also, the story moves the action from a claustrophobic environment into the open air far too early.
THE AGGRESSION SCALE is not a great film. In truth, it’s barely average. However, there are some good points: the work with a limited budget is excellent and some of the offense utilised, although obvious during the film, judged on its own merits is inventive. Also, the direction is solid: the camera never misses a beat, and importantly the film doesn’t drag its limited story out for any longer than necessary. Whilst not the worst low-budget horror of the year THE AGGRESSION SCALE does miss the mark by quite a lot.
THE AGGRESSION SCALE is released on Blu-ray and DVD September 3rd and can be pre-ordered here
