The Retaliators

"The Retaliators" is a wild ride. It's bloody; it's brutal and fun as hell.

With the calendar sitting seemingly stalled in mid-September and knowing a slew of horror movies are just beyond the horizon, I was pleasantly surprised when "The Retaliators" dropped in my lap. While it's not a full-blown horror movie, it has some nice bloody moments and enough shlock to tide me over for the next few weeks.

John Bishop (Michael Lombardi) is a loving, devoted, albeit overprotective dad to two daughters. Each is seemingly happy, but the family has a specter of grief that hovers over them. We met Sarah (Katie Kelly) as she participates in a group grief counseling session recalling a memory of her mother. While the family is tight, we know it's missing something special.

Understanding that he can't protect his daughter forever, Bishop allows her to attend a party with an extended curfew, but when she encounters Ram (Joseph Gatt), his world is turned upside down. He receives a call that someone is following her and is on the phone when she crashes. He rushes out into the night to find the car submerged in a pond.

As he tries to piece together what happened to his daughter, Detective Jed Sawyer (Marc Menchaca) shows up on his doorstep to let him know it wasn't a case of road rage and that Sarah's hands were zip tied to the steering wheel at the time the car entered the water. Bishop continues to go out, trying to find his daughter's killer night after night, but to no avail.

Then the phone rings.

Meeting up at a small diner, Sawyer communicates to Bishop that a similar circumstance happened to him in his past. Describing the pain he endured, Bishop asks how he got through it. "I got headed" and offers Bishop an opportunity to be healed himself. Driving deep into the woods, both men enter the house and make their way through several passageways to a collection of rooms. Tied up before them is a man with a shaved head and Jed quickly makes the introduction.

"John, I'd like to introduce you to the man that killed your daughter."

That introduction set off a series of events that took this film from being something interesting to being something I'm recommending to friends who love the genre. It's not anything Oscar-worthy, of course, but it's such a fun watch. Up to this point, there is a little blood here and there, but filmmakers Samuel Gonzalez Jr, Bridget Smith and Lombardi more than makeup for it. At times it's over the top and ludicrous and I loved every minute of it.

Menchaca is an actor I've liked for a long time, and he does a superb job balancing with Lombardi throughout. He's able to deftly create a character that's equal parts confidant and devil, on the shoulder. It's a fun performance to enjoy.

"The Retaliators" is a wild ride. It's bloody; it's brutal and fun as hell.