Revenge horror is as commonplace as the slasher, but it has a much more complicated history than Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. Revenge movies centered around sexual assault have been rightful lightning rods of controversy, with exploitative movies like The Last House on the Left and I Spit On Your Grave giving way to modern re-imaginings of the genre like Revenge, a 2017 French film with a feminist lens, or Promising Young Woman, the Oscar-winning Carey Mulligan movie. Other revenge movies like Mandy, Blue Ruin, and Ma tackle the genre from different angles, and The Retaliators, written by brothers Darren and Jeff Allen Geare, is no different. With a hard rock edge, the indie horror movie uses revenge as a vehicle to explore a half-baked criminal underworld filled with blood-soaked and drug-fueled nightmares. Its ultimate message may get lost in the bloodshed, but The Retaliators is an effective horror film that goes beyond the typical exploration of revenge while also being a bit stuck in the trappings of the genre.
After a somewhat confusing opening scene, The Retaliators introduces Pastor Bishop (Michael Lombardi), a single father of two daughters, Sarah (Katie Kelly) and Rebecca (Abbey Hafer), who leads a sort of hard-rock church sermon early on in the film. He's strict with Sarah and Rebecca (a 10 pm curfew, no car, etc.), but it's because he loves them. When Sarah is brutally murdered by a drug dealer named Ram Kady (Joseph Gatt), Bishop is grief-stricken, praying for answers that may never come. The detective assigned to Sarah's case, Jed (Marc Menchaca), is determined to find Sarah's killer, a quest for answers that is tied to his own journey of revenge that sees him driven by his own wife's murder ten years prior. Jed introduces Bishop to a terrifying criminal underworld of vengeance filled with brutality and, just maybe, some answers.
The Retaliators includes some of rock's biggest names to terrifying effect. The sadistic serial killer Quinn is played with viciousness by Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach. If anything Shaddix could've used more time to flesh out his character, one that begs to be explained beyond the horrific facade seen in the film. The Retaliators' soundtrack underscores the brutal proceedings — songs from Five Finger Death Punch, Escape the Fate, Motley Crue, and more add to the full-throttle nature of the film that isn't afraid to hide the gore, of which there is plenty.
In a revenge tale with such visceral anger and intense grief, encapsulated with aplomb by both Lombardi and Menchaca, the gore (which includes airborne limbs and decapitations galore) feels particularly fitting when paired with the grimy underworld that Bishop slowly becomes entrenched in. Indie horror has always flourished because of its ability to tap into that grime without sacrificing what makes the genre great, and The Retaliators is no different. The film, which rose to popularity when the Geare Brothers uploaded the script to The Blacklist, found a champion of sorts in Lombardi, who helped produce it and who provides a stellar lead performance. The Retaliators was also filmed at the onset of the pandemic and these constraints work to the film's advantage rather than taking away from its potency.
The Geare Brothers were inspired to make The Retaliators after their sister Jody was assaulted in 2004. Jody survived the assault and, 12 years later, her rapist was apprehended and sentenced to 22 years in prison. The justice system very rarely provides that kind of resolution for survivors, and it still does little to heal the emotional wounds left after something like that. Upon finding out her brothers were writing a film based on her experience, she told them, “Please, if this script ever turns into a movie, use my name. Get my story out in the world. I want to be an inspiration for other girls.” The raw emotion present in The Retaliators suggests that the Geare Brothers, Lombardi, and those involved passionately discussed these circumstances and the violence provides an interesting counterpoint to this honesty.
Naturally, there's still anger over what happened both for Pastor Bishop and the real-life events that inspired the film. The Retaliators suggests that vengeance, even if it is achieved, may not ever be enough, something anyone familiar with the trope knows all too well. The Retaliators tries to acknowledge all of this while avoiding clear-cut answers one way or another and this is where it fumbles. Still, as a piece of horror, the film is certainly effective, achieving a kind of discomforting aura that is sometimes missing from the too-polished genre fare released all-too-frequently.
The Retaliators released in theaters September 14. The film is 110 minutes long and is unrated.