Strangeland (1998)

Director: John Pieplow

Writer: Dee Snider

Tagline: So much flesh, so little time.

Actors: Kevin Gage, Elizabeth Peña, Brett Harrelson, Robert Englund, Linda Cardellini, Tucker Smallwood, Ivonne Coll, Amy Smart, Dee Snider, Amal Rhoe, Robert LaSardo

Runtime: 1h 25m

Category: Torture

Synopsis: The glow of the screen illuminates his heavily pierced, tattoo-stained face as his fingers dance nimbly across the keyboard…searching…hunting. His computer handle is “Captain Howdy” and he surfs the local chat rooms for young female prey. Girls like Genevieve and Tiana; who mysteriously vanish after an online conversation with the cunning cyber predator.
Detective Mike Gage has a personal stake in the case; Genevieve is his daughter. When Tiana’s corpse – tortured, pierced, and scarred – is discovered in the river, Gage realizes that time is running out for his daughter. Taking sadistic delight in Gage’s desperation, Captain Howdy sends the detective a series of taunting emails, challenging him to a deadly online game of cat-and-mouse; drawing him into his “modern primitive” world – a strange land of fetish bars, S&M, body modification, and goth rock.*

*(Because the back of the DVD was so poetically done, I saw no need to change a thing)

Review: Strangeland (1998) at face value was a B or C Movie at best. The compensation found for spending ninety-one precious minutes with this movie comes from the subject matter dealt with and the storyline.

For Dee Snider’s first foray into writing and directing, I applaud him. It seems as thought the movie was set on a low budget because of the use of mainly b-list actors. The female aspect was heightened with the addition of the lovely and beautiful Amy Smart. I swear I would watch any movie she was in. Although I wouldn’t list Strangeland (1998) as a horror movie, Captain Howdy is perhaps one of the scariest and creepiest individuals to come across a movie screen.

Carlton Hendrick, a.k.a. Captain Howdy, was visually and vocally intimidating. The voice of a scholar and the body of a monster, his only purpose was to instill fear, and his only interest was to die. When faced with that reality, the only thing left to do is put that dog down! Even after he was captured and hospitalized, the attempt to medicate him and hide his tattoos made him even more fearful. Making a man like that a “normal” member of society is damn near impossible. Mr. Snider thankfully included horror icon Robert Englund as the leader of the lynch mob out to get rid of Capt. Howdy.

The turning point of this film that shows that Captain Howdy is not the only bad guy in Strangeland, is the actions NOT taken by Detective Gage when the lynch mob came to claim the Bad Captain, shows that Detective Gage’s need for vengeance overrode his duty as a police officer. The repercussions of this inaction lay the second coming of Howdy squarely on Detective Gage’s shoulders. His actions at the end of the film makes him even more of a monster, because in stead of taking Capt. Howdy into justice, he gives him exactly what he’s wanted the entire time…death!

Strangeland (1998) never really got its props as a truly innovative film but, it paved the way for films like Saw I, II, and III, and Hostel I, and II. This film, for all of its B-Movie flaws, was powerful and ground-breaking in its message, and Dee Snider, for his inexperience as a screen writer, was truly impressive.

The message from Strangeland (1998) is a simple one: Watch your freakin’ kids! Predators feed on the weak!

Rating: 18. Although not one of the most top-notch movies ever made, Strangeland (1998) redeems itself with the script, the character of Capt. Howdy, and the message conveyed. Looking closely at Strangeland (1998) you can see how they tried to turn the bad guy into a good guy, and the good guy became the bad guy. They were so similar that crossing that line wasn’t so hard to do. Sometimes you say a movie is dark and disturbing but, Strangeland (1998) started dark and stayed dark till the end. Acting-wise Strangeland (1998) wasn’t that impressive, but visually the torture scenes alone have yet to be outdone. Truly enjoyable! (18of25).