[FANTASIA 2018] ‘PLEDGE’ Review

https://youtu.be/lsbjmWIXp1g

Do you get frat life? Because I don’t. Something about the alpha male comradery has never appealed to me, and so hearing the horror stories about hazing become all too amplified. I was bullied enough through middle school, I’ve never had even a remote desire to let someone break my spirit in order to build a relationship on purpose. So along comes Daniel Robbins’ movie Pledge that exploits my fears to create a horror film experience that will make you think twice about pledging allegiance to a miscellaneous fraternity, mostly because you want to get laid.

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Three frisky geeks, David (Zack Weiner), Justin (Zachery Byrd), and Ethan (Phillip Andre Botello), are interested in enjoying their college life in all the typical ways: frat parties, girls, and booze. After a few failed attempts at landing a rush spot or having a worthy social engagement, a fetching young lady Rachel (Erica Boozer) invites the guys to a house a little ways off campus, a secret fraternity of sorts. The party starts off all well and good, but when it comes time for the three guys (and a few others) to rush, they discover this fraternity has some very different, extreme hazing rituals. Like steer branding, for starters. Things escalate before the pledges realize that they may not be able to leave this brotherhood alive.

Robbins’ previous film Uncaged was in a similar vein, though much more comedically edged. I gave that movie two shots, as I learned after being unimpressed the first time that there are some really big fans of this werewolf movie. Still don’t get it. Pledge, however, is much more promising for Robbins. What starts off as a college romp slowly devolves into a bit of “escape room” and a bit of “torture porn.” It’s in fact not entirely unlike Hostel, but felt very different to me and without as high of a concept. I think Robbins has a very good eye, and a couple of the more violent sequences were staged really well to provide an impact. The movie is shot well, and some bits give the appearance of a higher budget because of it. Bang for the buck, let’s say. The movie is well put together on a technical level.

These kids could just be murder fodder, but you feel sympathy for them because they had no clue what they were getting into. I think it would be more effective if I actually cared about any of the characters. Zack Weiner’s script is just so light in story that the characters have to back it up, and it just doesn’t. These are nothing but stereotypes across the board; paper dolls with no discernable difference besides appearance. Nobody is really fleshed out enough to provide actual character, even the evil, frat boy tormentors. Everyone is fine, but nobody stands out as an actor or a character. Sometimes mediocrity is worse than being bad in that it’s completely forgettable. There is a nice reveal towards the end, and the finale is fairly satisfying. I would have liked more answers, but I’m alright with what I was given. Pledge isn’t the best, but it’s got some cringe and thrills that are enough fun to lightly recommend.

In addition to playing Fantasia 2018 no information is available on a distributor, but we’ll be sure to let you know whenever we do!