I saw this low-budget movie on Amazon pay per view the other night called “Captives.” When I saw the picture below with the dramatic red text I thought, “Hmm, I’ll have to check that out.” Well, as is almost always the case in “regular” movies, if you’re looking for a good bondage scene, you’ll be disappointed. But in some ways I still kind of liked it for the set up and concept, which is quite good. A thrill-seeking couple, Jim and Naomi, have car trouble and stop in front of the house of a boring couple, Neil and Jane. The four of them end up having dinner together and the talk turns to a hypothetical discussion about someone consenting to their own kidnapping. Now that’s one of my favorite fantasies so I had to watch the whole thing!

In some ways it’s almost like a slow art film, with long stretches of dialogue, and it takes forever for anything to happen. They also mix up the timeline, like in “Pulp Fiction,” but without any real payoff for doing it. Everyone is quite attractive, though, especially the two female leads, and in a strange way I did kind of like it, and I thought it was a good effort for the director’s first movie, and definitely better than expected. The best scene, I thought, was in the middle of the movie where Jane calls Naomi and tentatively asks her about that “plot” they were talking about and whether she was serious about it. She wants to go through with it, just for the excitement of something new, and you can see the wheels turning in her head as she agrees to it. The scene works really well and I found it pretty hot, I have to admit. (Notice in the picture below the cuckoo clock behind Jane’s head – symbolism, perhaps?)

When you get to the actual bondage much later it’s a total letdown. Actually the picture below with her gagged is better than the actual scene. Not to give too much away, but Jane ends up tied up with another person, back to back, but their hands are tied in front, they’re not tied to each other, they’re not tied to the chairs, their legs aren’t tied at all (!), and they’re gagged with simple cleave gags. All they’d have to do is stand up and undo each other’s hands, or just look down and untie their own with their teeth. It’s utterly lame. It all ends on a tragic note, though, which is kind of interesting for this kind of movie, although they give it away way too early.

So the payoff doesn’t work too well, but I find in these kinds of movies that I often enjoy the lead up and the sense of danger beforehand anyway, which is pretty good in a couple scenes. The acting is nothing extraordinary, but really the bad girl, Naomi, is quite good. And the boring housewife and kidnap victim, Jane, is good too as a woman who’s kind of shut down and would like to experience some excitement. I really came away thinking, “Wow, I’d love to make something like this with a tranny angle and good bondage,” although making a full length movie with a crew is way out of my budget range. Oh, there’s another movie out there also called “Captives” with Tim Roth – that’s not it. This one has unknown actors and is directed by Randall Chu. I wonder if he knew bondage fetishists would be checking out his movie for sexy scenes. Of course, with a movie poster like that maybe he’s one of us…