Torture Me No More

Owing a lot to Hitchcock's 'innocent man on the run' films and movies like The Fugitive, Torture Me No More follows Sal, a recently released convict, who is forced underground when his brother is brutally murdered and the police are convinced that he's guilty. 
 
Sal has a friend in Babe, a resident at the mental institution from which Sal's brother was just released.  Babe is able to do far more than anyone in an asylum should be able to and provides Sal with information and some of his belongings that he can't get because the police are watching his apartment block.
 

One of the items Babe secures is a CD-ROM with CRACK written on it in pen and this allows Sal, who did time for computer hacking, to surf the Internet unimpeded.  However, he correctly guesses that the cops are also watching internet traffic to find his location but Sal is able to find a S&M website which has footage of real torture.  This leads him into a world of vice and he rescues a woman, Delia, who is being brutally sodomised by a man going by the moniker King Fachio and Sal and Delia strike up an unlikely relationship.
 
I practically gave up on this by the end, with the title describing my feelings towards the film.  It's not that I didn't like the dark and disturbing subject matter or the idea of an innocent man trying to clear his name by finding the serial killer who murdered his brother.  The whole thing felt very contrived with Francis Xavier DeGennaro (who did just about everything on the film) not sure whether to stick with making one type of film.  It'd be fine if this was like The Fugitive with a fairly straightforward narrative drive, but Torture Me No More seemed to overcomplicate itself with the computer hacking and sadomasochistic club scene.
 
Other aspects felt far too easy, especially Babe's involvement and Sal's ability to dodge the police and carry out a one man investigation into the murders in New York better than the authorities.  Far from being gripped and involved in Sal's plight and the sordid underworld which he uncovered, I was bored and actively counted down the minutes towards the end.
 
Picture and Sound
Unlike the R1 release from 2004 which has an anamorphic transfer, this is letterboxed and this detracts from the horribly dark and muddy picture, though there is some good location shooting.  I was less impressed with the sound because of the fluctuating volume.  Though fairly clear and easy to understand, some dialogue was very quiet when compared to the louder scenes which led to me changing the volume on my amp multiple times during the film.
 
Final Thoughts
Francis Xavier DeGennaro was very ambitious with this film but his talent sadly wasn't up to the challenge he set himself.  Of the six DVDs released this week by Brain Damage Films, I'd put this fifth above Silent Bloodnight and, even with the low price tag, would struggle to recommend a purchase.