Match Dead Redux

March 2, 2011 by Editor
Filed under Film Reviews

Abducted (2009) aka Match Dead

Directed By: Jon Bonnell

Review Written By: Horse
Mondo Film & Video Guide Reviewer
IMDb.com Link

A black screen with a voice in a southern accent says “Run, just run, or I’ll put one in your head right here”. Then we hear a shotgun or rifle say Boo-Yaa. With this we begin The Abducted (formerly known as Match Dead, a much more fitting title). Our first view into this world is from inside the trunk of a car with fists flying into our face. “That’s for kicking me in the balls” says the hitter. Slam trunk, cue metal music, roll credits.

“Blood makes the flowers bloom, and I like flowers!” This is the reason behind the madness of Ridley Thompson (James Ray), a freak who lives in the middle of bum fuck desert nowhere with his sniper rifle. I guess Ridley has been looking for that special someone on the internet. He’s already found a potential winner since there’s a girl chained to the bed with tied up hands inside his hut. Ridley was just out hunting for some dinner. No he’s not a cannibal; he took down a coyote. But then a pair of dudes rolled by in a dune buggy, and he smoked them at long range too. Guess he’s not the hospitable type.

We flashback to when Ridley was first finding Valora (Kathleen Brenner) online. Dude must have a great rap to get hot girls he’s only talked to on the web to drive out to the middle of nowhere and meet him. Now all he wants is to talk, and know if you can run fast. He gets bored easily and finds fun in letting his captives go and run, so he can hone his sniper skills shooting them down when done with them. Not sure why one girl is dead in bed during the flashback, that doesn’t fit his M.O. Must’ve laughed at his dick or something.

Another flashback, this time Valora’s. She’s a young girl out hunting with her grandpa (Michael Harrelson) and he’s telling her never to run. “When an animal runs, it’s already dead. If you fight, maybe you live” or some shit. I don’t need binoculars or a telescope to see where this is heading. Ridley leaves for some reason, but unties Val’s hands before going. He must be trying to tempt her to run. She probably would run about now, except none of the old tools around the shack can cut her leg shackles.

A chance encounter at the Quickie-Mart, err, Quickie Stop gets grandpa (who hasn’t aged a day since the flashback) and his friend Guy worried about Valora. So they go out to check on her. I still like the irony of Val’s shirt most of all, it reads “Some call it stalking, I call it love”. Back at the shack, Ridley finds Val not in the room and gets geeked. “Damn girl, you know how to make your man happy!” But she’s not running, she’s standing to fight with the hatchet she found. It doesn’t take long for Ridley to re-secure her in the maze of tractors and junk behind his shed. Just then, Guy rolls up to get shot down. When Val reaches out to touch Guy’s dead hand, Ridley loses it and we learn of his ADD obsession. He won’t touch anything dead, and loses his mind and washes like a madman if he does. He’s also scrubbing down Valora after her attempted touch and subsequent fall onto the dirt of a fresh grave. He actually sounds more like a disappointed dad than kidnapping psycho here.

Then a car rolls up, and it’s another girl from the net. Ridley keeps talking about “she’s going to the gates” which we soon find out means the pearly gates of heaven. This is some wack advice on how to pick up girls though, kill other girls in front of them! Man, if I had a buck for every time this worked for me, I’d be broke! To think of how Ridley was handling all of this up to now makes it seem even sillier. He was damn near a gentleman despite the whole held against her will thing. I don’t think he had any plans to assault her sexually and seemed to be hoping for her to like him. The new girl sees the gun, hears Val’s cries and runs. It doesn’t take long before she is shot in the back.

We see some more flashbacks of Val and grandpa, and Val killing her first animal. Gramps says it’s important, just to know you can do it. “You need to know that you can be strong, it could save your life one day.” I wonder if this will play into the final act? Hmmmmm. Finally we get some explanation of the whole situation.
“You want to run, why?” asks Ridley.
“I don’t belong here, you’re keeping me against my will, you think I really want to stay here with you?”
“Yeah. I love you! I love you girl. It feels so good I want to shout it from the mountain tops”.
“You’re sick”
“Come to daddy, let me just hold you”
“You touch me, I’ll rip your fricking head off”
Long pause, confused look on Ridley’s face. “Is it the shackles? You don’t like the shackles?”
“Yeah Ridley, it’s the shackles.”

So he removes the shackles and gets kicked in the head for thanks. I swear man, you do everything for these women and they still treat you bad! “God I love this girl” is all he can say wiping the blood off his lip. She finally tries running, but is stopped by one of her fingers being removed by a bullet. Ridley must really like her since he doesn’t kill her, he takes her back and wraps up her bloody nub. Then a shower and dinner. At dinner Val tries reasoning, but Ridley is quite gone. “Don’t you realize I’m doing people a favor? The world’s over-crowded, hauling ‘em out is just good for global warming. Hell, there’s poverty, and war…and shit. It’s all bad”. Combine this with the “Recycled Parts” theory and we would be doing the world some good! Unfortunately, while Ridley seems to be thinking green, he only uses the bodies as mulch in his flowerbeds. I guess that’s not a total waste.

Speaking of waste, I have to admit when I first watched this I felt it might be a waste of film. I just didn’t see much point to it, but as I watch a second time it’s making more sense and is quite entertaining. James Ray’s performance is pretty fucking great, bringing a complex character to life and keeping it believable. He’s just charming enough to make it feel possible he could be sweet and lure girls out here, just menacing enough that you can buy him being crazy and sick. Kathleen Brenner also turns in a fine performance, but her character is so overshadowed by Ridley. Good direction as well. For a movie set in the middle of the desert it sure feels claustrophobic most of the time. The 2.35 widescreen ratio makes the long shots of the landscape seem endless, while the inside of the shack feels like a coffin. Definitely worth checking out. I already see it listed as horror on a few DVD sites, and that’s probably where most stores would put it. It shouldn’t be there though, horror it is not. Suspense/thriller mixed with some drama. There’s not much blood or gore, and only some man-ass for nudity (female viewers will likely appreciate it, Ray is pretty buff), but the story is interesting enough and the lead performances will pull you in and have you giving a fuck by the end. Worth a reasonable sale price blind buy or rent, although if you read this it’s not really blind buy anymore is it? Peace.