Movie Review: ‘RAZE’

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After seeing a trailer for Raze, it’s hard to imagine any fight film fans not getting excited to see this.  Likewise I can’t see many horror fans who enjoy to marvel at brutality turn away from this after catching a glimpse.  If you like UFC but feel like: there are too many rules, there aren’t enough women, the cage should be stone walls, and they don’t need gloves — have I got a film for you.

A young woman named Jamie (Rachel Nichols) wakes up in what feels like an old prison.  Her cell is open, and she wanders the halls lined with more cells.  She stumbles onto another woman wandering the halls as well, also apparently unaware of the surroundings and how she ended up there…but very quickly we realize this second girl is more aware than she led on.  This girl is Sabrina (Zoe Bell), a title card pops up as Sabrina vs. Jamie, and Sabrina beats Jamie to death.  Right away the tone is set, and if it was tough watching this first bout you’d be well advised to know that it’s only going to get worse from here on out.  Hand-to-hand, bare knuckle brawls abound, each more hard hitting than the last, and the more reluctant the combatants are the harder it gets to watch…but you can’t look away.  In a Hostel like fashion, this is all for the enjoyment of the wealthy, and as you never really see this applauding crowd one can’t help but feel like it’s supposed to be you, the viewer, getting enjoyment and satisfaction from watching.

I adore Zoe Bell.  I don’t know how anybody couldn’t see her in Death Proof playing a thinly veiled version of herself and not just fall in love.  Her confidence exudes a sexiness that is mysterious, and her physical abilities as a stunt woman and a fighter are unmatched by anyone since Michelle Yeoh in her prime.  Sabrina is a much tougher character than we’ve seen her play before, and she gives her more layers of character than one would feel is necessary for the concept.  In fact, most of the women we’re given much of any time to learn about.  Most memorable is Phoebe (Rebecca Marshall) who’s the only one who seems to be enjoying herself with the forced combat.  Marshall plays crazy and vicious extremely well and she gets to execute the best kill in the movie which I won’t spoil.  Speaking of which, did I mention this film was brutal?

Doug Jones, he of so many incognito performances in prosthetic appliances, has a  role in his own skin as the announcer/headmaster of this organization.  He puts so much of himself into characters like Abe Sapien in the Hellboy films and the Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth that he’s got an equal presence just being himself.  So tall and lanky, with an exaggerated neck and a jagged bone structure, he exudes evil alongside his wife played by Sherilyn Finn, as they play puppeteer for a group of wealthy, unseen creeps’ pleasure.  It only adds to the film to have an enemy outside of each other be there, though in all honesty it’s not especially necessary.  The film could simply be a series of fights by people who don’t know each other and are forced to compete.  Raze is essentially what I’ve wished any fighting game adaptation would do, which nobody really plays for any sort of story or continuity and just don’t translate well.  It’s the gratification of seeing people beat each other up for sport, and this film personifies that while adding in a naturally fitting framework.

Raze is lean and mean.  It’s under 90 minutes, never overstays its welcome.  In the first 5 minutes it cuts to the chase, and in the last 5 minutes it  wraps things up in a very satisfactory way.  It’s a non-stop exercise in brutality and survival.  It’s about the lengths people go to when stuck in a situation and forced to use the one way out that most of them don’t want.  It’s about the voyeuristic pleasure in watching people fight, and how much tougher it is to see women do it.  But really it’s about kicking serious ass, and it does so in spades.  If you’ve got the stomach for it, check it out ASAP.