The Aggression Scale

You have to love when a film literally starts with a bang. In this case it the gunshot blast that throws some poor nameless woman back twenty feet from her front door. This is then followed by a rather happy camper of a gangster armed with shotgun and Polaroid camera (they still make film for those?)

The plot is then later given in broad strokes. Ray Wise is some gangster who's about to take it on the lamb. Trouble is, while in jail someone made off with his secret stash. Our happy gangster job is simple, he has 48 hours to find the money and kill everyone involved down to their pets. He's told to make it nasty and hard so the message will be loud and clear.

Well, as the gangsters start blowing away folks left and right we cut to a family moving into a huge new house. Hmmm, wonder how they bought it. The family's kids are not happy. The older sister hates the country and doesn't like her new step brother. Step brother is creepy and doesn't say a word, but does take his medicine like his daddy asks him to.

Well these two forces meet and a blood bath ensues. Surprisingly it's not all one sided.  See the kid is not just creepy, he's lethally creepy.  Daddy used part of the money he stole to free sonny boy from the ye olde loony bin where he scored 995 out 1000 on the aggression scale.  The kid is a walking encyclopedia of booby traps and likes using "sister" as bait. 

The film is a decent low budget thriller.  I always like Ray Wise, but he's in the film for like a nanosecond.  The other actors are ok.  The film does has some slow spots, but creepy kid certainly keeps things interesting.