Waz
- Year:2008
- Rating:R
- Director:Tom Shankland
- Cast:Melissa George, Stellan Skarsgard
- Distributor:All Interactive
- The Film:1.5
Two detectives (Stellan Skarsgard and Melissa George) are called to the scene of a brutal...
Two detectives (Stellan Skarsgard and Melissa George) are called to the scene of a brutal murder, where they find a charred corpse inscribed with the algebraic phrase W-Delta-Zed. One detective - giving voice to reasonable audience members everywhere - asks "Waz?" Sadly, expecting filmgoers to care enough to pronounce the title correctly is one of the filmmakers' most realistic cinematic expectations.
As the body count rises, the movie's self consciously high-concept premise eventually reveals itself: victims are given the choice of either (a) submitting to deadly torture, or (b) hitting a switch to electrocute a nearby loved one. With its over-plotted "kill or die" torture premise, WAZ seems to have spent all its cleverness and foresight, leaving the rest of the film to rely on weak one liners and lost actors, with the excellent Selma Blair the sole exception. The usually accomplished Stellan Skarsgard and Melissa George have barely sufficient characterisations to work with, although a bizarre last minute twist attempts to shoehorn some in. The film favours shock over story, and the bloodless scenes exist to half-heartedly usher the characters into harm's way. Like the Saw movies, WAZ dully roves the kind of gruesome, what-if scenarios that can rarely support a feature film.
