I just enjoyed this flick. However, having read the other reviews, I'm seriously wondering if viewers may have been on crack or are close friends with the director? Are they serious? No, seriously? I think that the best aspect of the movie is the fact that the director imbued it with so many MAJOR components of 80's B slasher flicks - the really bad synth music, the twisted ankle, the incessant screaming, the double twist ending - but without a hint of irony, which is rather difficult to do I would imagine! The tone is extremely deadpan. If someone had told me I was watching a horror movie made in 1988, I would have completely believed it - and is a very significant statement coming from someone like me by the way. Whether intentional or unintended, the movie works for both thrills and chills. Fun stuff - no second coming like a few other critics declare. An addendum to this story. My good friend left several messages recently for me indicating that she wanted to go to "Male Violence" - yes, several times she told me that we simply must see "Male Violence"? I asked her to spell it for me..."M- A-L-E-V-O-L-E-N-C-E"...."you haven't heard about Male Violence"? So in thanks to this movie I learned that my friend can't spell or really speak...wow.

I first saw this almost a decade back on a dvd which I own. Revisited it recently. It is a genre mash-up n a pretty good one. Starts off with a child being abducted by a serial killer then proceeds into a bank robbery n hostage situation n ends with a solid slasher tone. The film is very well shot n the editing n direction top notch. The secluded house, the closed slaughterhouse n the ruined house on a top of a small hill a la Psycho style created some lovely sinister atmosphere. Many may compare this to Halloween, The Town that dreaded Sundown, TCM, Dead Birds, FT13, etc. but apart from minor similarities this is a solid crime thriller with enuff tension n suspense. The cinematography by Tsuyoshi Kimoto is very good, the story is set in the middle of nowhere, showing the emptiness n isolation in the countryside. The characters are developed enough n director Mena restrains the on screen bloodshed. Editing by Stevan Mena n Eddie Akmal is excellent.

MALEVOLENCE is a typical indie 'torture porn' variant that'll remind you of various better titles such as SAW, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, and many others of their ilk. A gang of bank robbers hole up at an old, seemingly abandoned house, only to discover that somebody living there is a serial killer. While this offers better photography than the majority of indies, the emphasis on routine nastiness makes this feel like a spin on better Hollywood concepts.