There is one word to describe Twisted: formulaic. This movie, without much direction and hardly any substance, tries to manufacture a story based on nearly every serial killer/profiler thriller that's been out. It's a bunch of pieces put together, but the final product is completely forgettable, particularly the ending which was not only uninteresting, but also somewhat confusing as to helping you understand motive, essentially acting as an anti-climax to a dull movie.
The movie starts out with about a half hour of boring dialogue and interactions as we are introduced to our characters, one as inconsequential as the next. The story is about that of patrolwoman, Jessica Shepard, (Judd) who gets promoted to investigator, thanks to her keen eye for detail. But, with her promotion follows a gruesome chain of mutders of guys that she's been permiscuous with. We are briefly shown one murder after the next. This is not even a psychological tempter where the detectives get so insanely into their work as they try to figure out who the killer is and his moda operandi and all of that the way other serial killer/profiler movies do. It took Morgan Freeman quite a few murders in 'Seven' and a deep dig in the library before he could formulate some theory about the killer. In 'Taking Lives,' Angelina Jolie became so engrossed in the murders that she used to have the pictures spread all over her floor while she slept and bathed. We can see the nervewracking positions of the detectives and it adds to our own assumptions as to who we think the killer is and why he does those brutal crimes.
But, in 'Twisted,' there is almost nothing compelling about the murders as they are introduced so quickly, and with hardly many details other than that of a killer who marks his victims with a cigarette burn on the hand. In fact, the story only seems to drop these murders in our lap so as to eliminate possible murder suspects. That weird guy in the bar with the strange tattoo or Jessica's violent ex-boyfriend quickly become knocked out of the picture and thus, struck from our list of possible killers. In part, too,this is because we are supposed to believe that Judd is the killer, but even that is still unconvincing as we see her blackout all the time and are even shown her strange dreams.
Jessica becomes one of the suspects because of the coincidental closeness she has to each of the victims, and because of her suspicious violent tendencies, something she supposes is a genetic trait as her father had a reputation for violence. But, as well as Jessica pays attention to detail, she can't be sure whether she is the killer. 'Twisted' doen'st even offer much development here and that is partly because the situation is too repetetive. Viewers are pretty much given the same bag of tricks, with little to throw their attention or interest.
Every night is the same thing, she comes home to to wave at the old neighbor woman staring at her from the building across the way, and then after a tall glass of Cabernet, she blacks out and her dreams of violent and sexual encounters, all of which make her even more confused. You'd think that she'd back track and at least stop drinking the same wine every night, knowing that that is exactly the moment she passes out.
But Jessica is up for a rude awakening when she realizes the truth. Not only is the ending predictable as the killer goes for that "let's make this finale death scene look like 'the serial killer' that you're looking for did it." The killer's motives and explanation for committing the crimes are even as textbook as the finale.
'Twisted' was a pretty bad movie, and one that proves how ridiculously formulaic the serial killer/profiler movies have become. Writers are running out of steam, trying to ride on the popularity of a thriller, but not offering much by way of story development, particularly the endings. The ending to this movie is about as illogical and uninteresting as 'Gothika.'
The movie starts out with about a half hour of boring dialogue and interactions as we are introduced to our characters, one as inconsequential as the next. The story is about that of patrolwoman, Jessica Shepard, (Judd) who gets promoted to investigator, thanks to her keen eye for detail. But, with her promotion follows a gruesome chain of mutders of guys that she's been permiscuous with. We are briefly shown one murder after the next. This is not even a psychological tempter where the detectives get so insanely into their work as they try to figure out who the killer is and his moda operandi and all of that the way other serial killer/profiler movies do. It took Morgan Freeman quite a few murders in 'Seven' and a deep dig in the library before he could formulate some theory about the killer. In 'Taking Lives,' Angelina Jolie became so engrossed in the murders that she used to have the pictures spread all over her floor while she slept and bathed. We can see the nervewracking positions of the detectives and it adds to our own assumptions as to who we think the killer is and why he does those brutal crimes.
But, in 'Twisted,' there is almost nothing compelling about the murders as they are introduced so quickly, and with hardly many details other than that of a killer who marks his victims with a cigarette burn on the hand. In fact, the story only seems to drop these murders in our lap so as to eliminate possible murder suspects. That weird guy in the bar with the strange tattoo or Jessica's violent ex-boyfriend quickly become knocked out of the picture and thus, struck from our list of possible killers. In part, too,this is because we are supposed to believe that Judd is the killer, but even that is still unconvincing as we see her blackout all the time and are even shown her strange dreams.
Jessica becomes one of the suspects because of the coincidental closeness she has to each of the victims, and because of her suspicious violent tendencies, something she supposes is a genetic trait as her father had a reputation for violence. But, as well as Jessica pays attention to detail, she can't be sure whether she is the killer. 'Twisted' doen'st even offer much development here and that is partly because the situation is too repetetive. Viewers are pretty much given the same bag of tricks, with little to throw their attention or interest.
Every night is the same thing, she comes home to to wave at the old neighbor woman staring at her from the building across the way, and then after a tall glass of Cabernet, she blacks out and her dreams of violent and sexual encounters, all of which make her even more confused. You'd think that she'd back track and at least stop drinking the same wine every night, knowing that that is exactly the moment she passes out.
But Jessica is up for a rude awakening when she realizes the truth. Not only is the ending predictable as the killer goes for that "let's make this finale death scene look like 'the serial killer' that you're looking for did it." The killer's motives and explanation for committing the crimes are even as textbook as the finale.
'Twisted' was a pretty bad movie, and one that proves how ridiculously formulaic the serial killer/profiler movies have become. Writers are running out of steam, trying to ride on the popularity of a thriller, but not offering much by way of story development, particularly the endings. The ending to this movie is about as illogical and uninteresting as 'Gothika.'