The Aggression Scale (2012)

Ever wonder what would have happened if Home Alone played out like a horror movie? Well wonder no more, The Aggression Scale is here, delivering as many laughs as home alone, but with the shock factor of Saw.

Mr. Bellavance (Ray Wise) is fresh out of jail, a gangster with a big grudge; someone stole 5 Million of his cash. Bellavance recruits Lloyd (Dana Ashbrook) a ruthless killer to help return his cash. Slowly Lloyd and his gang of thugs, execute every person who could have possibly stolen the cash, finally turning their sights on a recently married couple and their two teenage kids (each from previous relationships). As the gang descend on the isolated house and take out a most brutal revenge they do not anticipate the boy Owen’s mental situation, a teenager with an overactive brain, and an aggression scale of 99.5 out of 100.

Starting with a bang (a few rather brutal executions) The Aggression Scale soon goes down a notch, and you think that it’s going to peter out much sooner than you’d like; from out of nowhere however this movie quickly ups its game dramatically, and takes you the audience with it on it’s at times alarming nature.

If you go into the movie with little expectation, or better still with little or no understanding of the story (if your reading this… too late) you are in for one hell of a rollercoaster. A movie so cleverly put together, in that it mixes violence and humour so expertly. Starting on a scale of total shock, the scale of this movie slides into a slight and very dark comedy from the moment the kids Owen (Ryan Hartwig) and Lauren (Fabianne Therese), take the balance of power off the thugs. Constructing traps, installing knife blades, weights, and home made toxic gasses; these two teens really get the attention of the movies aggressors.

Hartwig gets all the glory in this feature, despite never once saying a word during the movies entirety. From his cheeky smile, and his characters naturally aggressive disposition, and bizarre sexual awakening at a most inappropriate time.

Its great to see Ray Wise and Dana Ashbrook working together for the first time since Twin Peaks, it kind of adds a little charm, to this already utterly charming (but in a very dark way) movie.

The Aggression Scale is a great little movie filled with suspense, hair curling violence, and an amazing amount of almost side splitting humour, if you fancy something a little different, you cant go far wrong with this.