REDD INC (2012) Review

Directed by: Daniel Krige

Starring: Nicholas Hope, Kelly Paterniti, Sam Reid

Thomas Reddman (Hope) was a convicted serial killer known as the Head Hunter who was sentenced to life in a psychiatric hospital. As we learn at the start of the film, the hospital has burned down and Reddman was killed, his body identified through DNA testing. Case closed. Or is it?

Annabelle Hale (Paterniti) is an online cam stripper who was a key eyewitness in the case of Thomas Reddman. She is abducted from her apartment one night and awakens to find herself seated at (and chained to) a desk in a room with a group of others. It turns out that everybody in the room was involved in the Reddman case in some way and all contributed to his conviction. Then in walks Redd himself.

The impossibly alive killer reveals himself to be their ‘Regional Manager’ and proclaims himself to be an innocent man. He then tasks them with finding the real killer by going through the relevant court documents. The catch? Any act of insubordination or any slacking off will earn them a ‘strike’ in the form of a cut on their forehead. Five strikes and they’re out. But will they find the real killer or will they all fall victim to the boss from hell?

REDD INC starts off in some not so original territory with the abduction by a masked intruder and the subsequent waking up trapped in a room being heavily reminiscent of the SAW franchise. But from there on it’s a pretty unique concept with some nice death scenes and a suitably strange performance by Nicholas Hope as the deranged Redd. With the effects being supervised by gore maestro Tom Savini (who also has a cameo) you know that there is going to be some decent blood and guts and plenty of it.
There’s enough slicing, dicing, amputation, eye gouging, stabbing and more to keep you entertained and it’s all surprisingly well done considering the film’s low budget.

There are also some genuinely funny moments to be had here like when Annabelle uses a severed leg as a weapon, swinging it like a fleshy baseball bat (at least I found it funny). Throwing in the extra sub-plot of the infamous hospital Redd was sent to and its not quite legal surgical experiments gives the film an added twist as you have to decide whether Redd really is innocent or whether the surgical scars on his head are a sign that he’s just a deluded, psychotic killer.

In my opinion the least impressive aspect of the film is the fact that although it starts off with a nice original flavor it doesn't take long to figure out where the film is headed, and beyond the unique setting and somewhat original premise there isn't really anything here that you could call innovative or groundbreaking. One other thing that irked me was that in a similar style to DAYBREAKERS, this Aussie indie horror has masked its nationality and appears as a very American film with American accents which I think is a shame. Nothing against Americans I just don’t see why an Australian production should feel the need to hide its nationality like that.

But with those few minor problems out of the way I actually found REDD INC to be quite an entertaining film and while it’s nothing I would call fantastic it’s most certainly not terrible. And as averse to the horror / comedy hybrid as I usually am this film gave me a few chuckles which was a nice surprise. Still it had plenty of room for improvement so I'm giving it five severed heads out of ten.