Pain and hurt will make you do crazy things, but is it enough to purposely land yourself in prison in order to enact revenge? This is where the lead character Detective Mason Danvers (Dean Cain) finds himself. Danvers is a well-known detective whose life changes dramatically when a criminal that he put away murders his wife. In order to settle the score, he lands himself in prison in order to get his revenge. Once inside, he uncovers a criminal enterprise that no one saw coming.
The film starts out strong with a dramatic hunt for high profile criminal, Victor Abbott (Paul “The Big Show” Wight). Abbott is captured by Detective Danvers and arrested, but when the key witness mysteriously goes missing, he and his brother are both released from prison. Danvers worst nightmare becomes reality when Abbott gets his revenge by killing his wife. We see the strong lead character lose it all and spiral out of control. Since Danvers has nothing left, he decides to “go hunting.” The Vendetta starts with Danvers killing someone close to Abbott’s in order to land himself in prison.
Immediately after his arrival, Warden Snyder (Michael Eklund) meets with Danvers and is suspiciously nice to him. Danvers quickly learns Abbott is running everything inside and outside of the prison. Abbott sends a message early on by having his crew severely beat Danvers. Then one by one Danvers starts getting his revenge on Abbott and his crew.
Danvers is causing chaos within the prison and Abbott doesn’t approve. In order to contain the situation, Abbott goes to his inside ally to handle it. Danvers begins to catch on to an unknown criminal enterprise and reaches out to his partner Joel Gainer (Ben Hollingsworth) to check it out. Danvers becomes suspicious that someone with power is corrupt and working with the inmates.
Danvers new lead causes him to lose other people in his life. The mood of the film goes from anticipation for Danvers to finally get revenge, to anger and frustration that his one ally left has been murdered. This loss pushes him to the point of no return. Danvers sends one final message to Abbott before unleashing his last act of revenge. One by one as Danvers kills off Abbott’s crew, we quickly see him lose his morality.
In his last effort to bring utter chaos to the prison, Danvers starts a riot. He throws one of Abbott’s men off the roof, killing a guard on the way down. An inmate quickly retrieves the guard’s gun triggering the riot to begin. Chaos breaks out with inmates fighting and killing each other and the guards. Danvers fights off a dozen inmates before finally getting his chance at Abbott. After many bloody encounters and built up hatred for one another, Danvers and Abbott come face to face for their final showdown.
Rating: 8
This is an action-packed thriller that starts off strong. Throughout the film, you will experience an array of emotions. Because of the intriguing plot and well-developed characters, this film deserves an 8/10 rating. It was an emotionally intense movie from beginning to end that will have you on the edge of your seat.
Vendetta is in select theaters and out on VOD today!