Reviewed by Fred Topel

Reversal – now known as Bound to Vengeance – kind of solved the whole conundrum of rape/revenge movies by skipping the rape entirely. Did no one think of this before? Although to be fair, doing that would have reduced Last House on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave to 45 minute movies, but the point being Reversal is not the exploitation version of this story. It’s got a clever take on the genre that moves it a little bit forward from the storied history of rape/revenge.

Eve (Tina Ivlev) is a happy girl with a loving boyfriend. Then she wakes up chained to a dank bedroom floor. Phil (Richard Tyson) comes down to feed her when she turns the tables and knocks him out with a brick. She breaks free but learns Phil has kidnapped other girls too, so she forces him to help her find and free them.

I do respect the grueling nature of earlier rape/revenge films but it is nice not to be subjected to the rape this time. Eve still was, so it’s just as terrible, but perhaps it is appropriate not to focus on that since the point of Eve’s story is more of a rescue mission than her own revenge.

Now, you can imagine these girls are in no condition to be escape when Eve finds them. Reversal explores the twisted psychology of victims. Some of the responses will bother you, and it’s probably valid. Nobody responds to trauma the exact same way.

Some of director Jose Manuel Cravioto’s techniques work better than others. A series of freeze frames works for the scene in which it’s featured. Intercutting found footage of Eve before her kidnapping feels very Cloverfield, even though it puts a twist on it.

It’s a solid introduction to Ivlev as a lead. She can certainly carry a movie, be tough and relatable. Tyson lingers on syllables so that everything he says sounds more creepy. The actresses playing the other victims are good too, each given a different psyche to portray, and illustrating the myriad impacts of brutal, sexual trauma.

Reversal succeeds at bringing new perspective to a tried and true genre. It remains just as satisfying to see Phil get beaten up and his world torn apart, but the real meat of Reversal lies within Eve’s encounters with each of Phil’s victims.

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