The Victim Movie Review

Michael Biehn was present at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival for the Quebec premiere of his movie which he wrote, directed, and starred in, “The Victim”; a low-budget movie that plays along the thin line of parodies to B-rated movies and a serious thriller.

Annie (Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, Michael Biehn’s wife), a stripper who parties with two crooked cops in the woods, is witness to the accidental murder of her stripper friend by one of the cops. The two policemen decide that they need to bury the body and get rid of Annie at the same time to clear any evidence. Annie overhears them and escapes through the woods, falling upon the secluded cabin of lonely-man, Kyle (Michael Biehn; is it a 30-years-later version of Kyle Reese from “The Terminator”? Who knows?). After numerous pleas and attempts to convince him, Kyle agrees to help her find her deceased friend’s body as evidence to accuse the cops of murder. However, those two corrupted lawmen now wish to eliminate Annie and Kyle in a classical thriller.

When you watch this movie, you really can’t be expecting an uber-serious movie. Michael Biehn and Jennifer Blanc-Biehn were present for the screening and even told us before the movie started: “Look, this was a low-budget movie and I hope you enjoy it. It’s not that serious and not the biggest blockbuster, so if your phone rings during the movie… answer it, I don’t give a fuck. It could be someone important calling you!” In addition to this, the movie starts with the words “Based on true events”, just before the word “Not” slowly fades in before the sentence. So you know right off the bat that there’s gonna be a touch of humor involved in the movie.

There is humor involved, but this movie is not like a “Scary Movie”-like parody, where things are exaggerated to the extreme to laugh at this and that. This movie attempts to be a serious movie, but splashed with tacky flashbacks, extremely cheesy music, unnecessary sex scenes, and hilarious one-liners, not to mention that the main antagonist is a typical goody-two shoes, highly acclaimed cop (with an 80’s mustache!), but who is the complete opposite of his public reputation.

Despite its low budget, Michael Biehn did a great job in directing and acting in this movie that they shot in only 12 days of shooting, as Mr. Biehn (Ha… You saw what I did there?)  said. Extremely short time to shoot a movie, indeed. Despite this lengthy shooting, the movie still works in entertaining you with a not-out-of-the-ordinary storyline, yet makes you laugh-out-loud at the purposefully cheesiness added to the movie. Even the extra-cheesy trailer below will probably have you laughing.

I recommend everyone to see this movie at least once and give “The Victim” a 3.5 stars out of a possible 5.

3.5 / 5 stars     

The Victim

Release Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2012
Directed By: Michael Biehn
Starring: Jennifer Blanc, Michael Biehn