In 2003, an ambitious yet altogether lacking film called Party Monster was released to little fanfare (although it would later gain something of a cult following), but within it lay a piece of advice the makers of the independent thriller Captives were sure to take, even if they'd never seen it before. “I think it's so important to begin with a bang, don't you? Let 'em know something horrible is going to happen and then poof! We're suddenly elsewhere.” James St. James' explanation of the popular filmmaking technique is as good as any, and is certainly effective in explaining its appeal. Captives opens on the heavy breathing of an unidentified female, and after several flashes of a woman held 'captive' if you will, it goes on to display the title screen and then “poof!” we dissolve to a point much earlier in the story.
Captives is director and writer Randall Chu's debut film, made over ten days with a guerrilla film crew and a couple of Panasonic AG digital cameras. While visibly limited by its budget, Chu's eye for composition does at times break through and deliver high quality shots, although the realism is broken by clunky camera movements and a half-hearted dedication (subconscious or not) to the cinema verite school.
The movie comes equipped with some passable acting by Len Cordova, Stephanie Denise Griffin, and Kyle Vogt (Leah Allers as Naomi stands out in the latter quarter of the film), compelling plot twists and functionally sound camera-work. However, what keeps Captives from being a true standout in the super-saturated market of the independent thriller is the writing. Chu has a knack for creating interesting situations, and I assume his outline looked very good on paper, but the dialogue is so wooden and lifeless, some points are stripped of all realism and left as plain exposition, so far as to become like an itch you can't scratch. At first you ignore it, but it continues to itch so bad that you just start rubbing your back against walls.
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