It’s Halloween night and there’s a crazed intruder in Romina’s (Lora Burke) house as she’s just trying to relax after a long day at work.  Chris (Nick Smyth) isn’t going to her hurt her, but he’s owed a debt of blood and he’s at his breaking point with simply nothing to lose.  However as this mystery unfurls further into the night, a violent swarm of mercenaries has descended on the house and they only intend to leave death in their wake.

There’s something really genius behind For The Sake of Vicious because as the film quickly revs up, we can easily appreciate the emotion of the moment and the struggle of these characters and what they have to face as an effective but fairly standard home invasion movie.   However when the narrative gets a little more abstract, it’s where the film really finds its footing.

The team of Gabriel Carrer and Reese Eveneshen have made an experience that is incredibly violent, but one with a clarity of purpose that is rarely seen on screen.  It doesn’t pull out to show the spectacle but rather zooms in to make us experience it with uncomfortable intensity, especially in lead Lora Burke’s face as she wears this insanity in her face every step of the way.

It’s exceptionally well shot and edited and it doesn’t shy away from taking the proverbial knife and twisting it in us while we watch.   If anything these filmmakers really want to make us FEEL what was going on and that’s what makes it unique.

The only destination that For The Sake of Vicious has in its lean & mean 81 minutes is pain.  It takes the spectacle out of the violence and makes us want to hurt alongside its characters and found real art in the carnage.