Chained

When comparing Jennifer Lynch's directorial career with that of father David, it's true to say she's had much less luck - her debut feature was the critical bomb Boxing Helena in 1993. Her fifth film is a vast improvement, though it isn't for everyone, being a violent study of a serial killer that questions whether society's abuse of women is genetic or learned. It opens with a young boy taking a taxi with his mother (Julia Ormond), who's brutally murdered in front of him. Flash-forward several years and the boy is now a terrified, withdrawn teenager (Eamon Farren) renamed Rabbit, who lives with his captor, Bob (Vincent D'Onofrio), in rural isolation. With Rabbit coming of age, Bob decides that it's time for his accomplice to become a killer, too. The scenes of torture and killing that follow are strong but not gratuitous, and the heavy air of malice is leavened by D'Onofrio's strangely human performance as the fatherly Bob. It may lack the style and wicked humour of her father's best work, but Chained is just as intelligent, and will likely find favour with horror audiences looking for something more thoughtful than another instalment of Saw.