For The Sake Of Vicious (2020): Cinefest Review (Written By Jaeden Noel)

 One great thing about Canadian filmmaking as a whole is that 99% of the time it holds back nothing. Wether it be crude wise as seen in Trailer Park Boys & Fubar (which are two of my favourite movies/shows of all time), or if its violence wise as seen with too many Canadian films to list. For The Sake Of Vicious finds itself on the latter end of that spectrum, giving viewers a mindless gore fest thriller that is sure to draw the attention of many. The film stars Lora Burke, Nick Smyth and Colin Padaline and is directed by Reese Evenshen and Gabriel Carrer. The premise is simple, when a nurse comes home on halloween night to find  a twisted man and his hostage in her kitchen, the trio must figure out a way to sort the situation out while fighting off waves of masked intruders. 

I'm a sucker for a good midnight movie, the feeling of just turning your brain off and watching madness unfold is somewhat comforting, even though the imagery isn't. Luckily, For The Sake Of Vicious is the perfect film to cater that desire. Clocking in at just a mere 80 minutes, it instantly kicks into full gear within the first 5 minutes and virtually doesn't stop for its remainder. Non stop violence and fighting ensues in creative ways that I've truly never seen before. Instead of the typical knife & gun fun, the film utilizes everything within it's environment to make some downright brutal sequences. There is literally a whole fight where a character only uses the back of a toilet lid to kick some ass. Thats something I'd never expect to see, but it works because it adds a sense of authenticity to the home fighting because really, when your in situations like that you gotta fight with what you can access. Every sequence is choreographed really well.

The scoring is awesome, even though the actual sound mixing could be a little better. Its got that Tenet mixing if you know what I mean. Performances are fine all around as this isn't the movie that necessarily showcases acting skills as a priority. The only real problem the film has going for it, is that it has absolutely no intention of establishing why things are happening in the first place. Which in a sense is perfect for a "turn your brain off" movie, but still, having virtually NOTHING answered was kind of annoying at many times. 

At the end of the day, For The Sake of Vicious literally exists solely...for the sake of being vicious, and for the most part it works pretty well. Hopefully Evenshen & Carrer evolve their writing into bigger and better things in their future endeavours as this film shows they already got their foot in the door.

For The Sake Of Vicious gets a 3/5