#432. The Rage (2007)

Directed By: Robert Kurtzman

Starring: Andrew Divoff, Misty Mundae, Ryan Hooks



Tag line: "A Mega-Dose of Pure Terror"

Trivia:  Director Robert Kurtzman came up with the story after he saw a vulture display at a museum in New York City

Some movies fall back on gore for shock value, while others use it as a device to tell what's most likely a very intense story. Then you have films like 2007's The Rage, where gore is all they got. And in the case of this particular motion picture, it's all they really needed. 

Doctor Viktor Vasilienko (Andrew Divoff), probably the maddest mad scientist you're ever gonna come across, has concocted a serum he's affectionately dubbed “The Rage”. Hoping to bring the entire American financial structure to its knees, Vasilenko's been hard at work testing his newest “creation”, which, when injected into the human brain, turns ordinary people into insane, flesh-hungry monsters. But one particular “subject” manages to escape from the good Dr.'s secret hideaway, and when he dies in the forest, he's immediately devoured by vultures (I'm sure you can guess what happens to them). At the same time this is happening, five friends: Kat (Erin Brown), Josh (Ryan Hooks), Olivia (Rachel Scheer), Pris (Sean Serino), and Jay (Anthony Clark), are on their way home from an overnight rave party. All are a little hung over, and feeling the effects of an alcohol and drug-fueled evening, but their day is about to get much, much worse. 

From the word 'go', The Rage has the violence cranked all the way up. In Dr. Vasilienko's lab of horrors, we watch as he slices a chunk out of one subject's head, then sticks a needle into the man's exposed brain. Following a full dose of the Rage vaccine, the subject begins freaking out on the table, flailing around uncontrollably, so much so that he eventually breaks free. After unleashing a fair bit of carnage in the lab, the infected subject makes his way into the woods, where he kills a couple having sex in their car (and eats the girl's eyeball for dessert) before finally dropping dead. And I haven't even gotten to the insane vultures yet! Barely five minutes of movie goes by without some form of violent bloodletting, making The Rage a picture you'll definitely want to avoid if you're chowing down on a TV dinner. 

Try to analyze any portion of The Rage, and it falls apart. Shine the light of logic on it, and it runs for cover. So take my advice...don't do that! Yeah, it's silly. At times, it's even stupid. But it also has killer vultures, and in my book, that's enough to justify switching your brain off for 85 minutes.