Trailer for Duress, which will screen at Fantastic Fest 2009.
The premise of the unexpectedly elegant suspense-ride Duress is that a cold-blooded killer has singled out a mild-mannered, recently widowed father and is forcing him, under threat of harm to his young daughter, to participate in gruesome activities that are clearly a way of life for our villain. Tension builds slowly as we watch as the father fail to act or take a stand. I was swept along on an unrelenting tide of frustration as the indecisive widow sinks him deeper and more helplessly into the clutches of the ruthless killer - a man most definitely on a mission. Typically this type of frustration does not turn out well - I leave the theater condemning the laziness of a script which condemns a character to stupidity and poor decision-making with no reason except to further the plot. Duress, however, cleverly avoids these traps and pays off the ever-increasing tension with a distinctly unexpected finale