RAZE (2014) * ½

Raze is a violent, brutal, and ugly film that marries the torture porn set-up of Hostel with the underground fighting tournament plotline of your average Don “The Dragon” Wilson movie.  It’s novel in that all the fighters are women.  Unfortunately, that’s about where the invention stops.

Doug Jones kidnaps a group of women and locks them into holding cells.  They are then released two at a time, led to a well, and forced to fight one another.  Hidden cameras broadcast the brawls to members of a “secret society” ran by Jones and his wife (Sherilynn Fenn).  Zoe Bell, Rachel Nichols, Tracie Thoms, and Amy Johnston are among the fighters, all of whom must fight, or their loved ones will be killed by Jones’ goons.  

There’s no real style or substance here, just gratuitous violence.  Admittedly, it’s not a bad idea, it’s just that the execution is lacking.  The fight scenes are joyless exercises and mostly revolve around two women pummeling each other rather than smartly choreographed and executed fight scenes.

Raze tries to straddle the line between two disparate genres, which is admirable I guess, but the truth of the matter is the film does neither genre justice.  It also loses major points for having a potentially awesome scene where Zoe Bell fights Amy Johnston and then shamelessly wasting an opportunity for something special.  I mean here you have a scene featuring two of the best actresses working in DTV action today and you throw it all away by making the fight an abbreviated, over-edited affair filmed in close quarters with zero style and uninspired choreography. 

One good thing about the movie is Doug Jones, who must be glad to have a role where he doesn’t have to wear a mocap suit with dozens of ping pong balls attached to it.  I also got a kick out of seeing Sherilyn Fenn looking like a loony bin version of Liz Taylor.  I wouldn’t mind seeing them return in a Hostel 2-style sequel that shows the inner workings of their secret society.

Thoms and Bell were also in the much better Death Proof. 

AKA:  Raze:  Fight or Die.