Twisted is directed by Darren Lynn Bousman director of Saw II–IV (2005-2007), Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008), Mother’s Day (2010), 11-11-11 (2011), Spiral: From The Book Of Saw (2021), The Cello (2023) and a few others. 

Twisted is an odd one, it definitely feels like it’s trying to recapture the grimy, dark and gory atmosphere of what some horror movies were doing back in the 2000s. Yet this feels like a very watered down version of that, there are a few scenes here that are nasty but those can only push the atmosphere so far. This leads to a pretty underwhelming experience despite the movie’s name telling you that it will be a sick one. 

Undeniably the best parts here are Lauren LaVera and Djimon Hounsou, Hounsou has this calm voice that can easily intimidate you and his character Dr. Kezian’s whole motive is genuinely interesting. Even if his backstory needed more stronger writing, Hounsou is able to salvage it by just giving a genuinely intimating performance. 

Lauren LaVera gives another great performance here, by now she’s pretty much established herself as a modern day scream queen and here is no exception. She nails both the thrilling and dramatic moments, her chemistry with Mia Healey feels natural and is the heart of the film. These moments are not huge, but they are what mainly helps this movie not feel like a chore to sit through. 

The main problem with Twisted is the writing, especially story and dialogue wise which is a bit of a mess, the dialogue does not have a whole lot going on here and is mostly saved due to the performances being surprisingly decent. The story is interesting and had promise, but the movie never takes full advantage of it. Outside of a few gross brain surgery scenes towards the end, the movie never fully commits to its ideas and instead settles on being strangely tame which does ultimately hurt the movie. 

Overall Twisted is forgettable, there is just not a whole lot going on here. There is a bit of this giallo feel with some of the blood splatters and with the camera being set up in certain ways, but much like almost everything else in this movie it’s very watered down to the point where you just shrug your shoulders and move on. There’s definitely worse straight to VOD options out there but you can’t help but feel disappointed with this one. 

Twisted is available on all VOD platforms.

4/10 D+