Photos: "Chained" with Vincent D'Onofrio and Eamon Farren (directed by Jennifer Lynch)

Directed by Jennifer Lynch and starring incent Vincent D’Onofrio, Julia Ormond, Jake Weber, Eamon Farren, Conor Leslie and Evan Bird.

Eight-year-old Tim and his mother Sarah are picked up by Bob, a deranged taxi cab driver on the hunt for his next victim. Tim witnesses his first murder, the murder of his mother, but it would not be his last. Bob keeps Tim as a reluctant protégé, forcing him to clean and bury the bodies of the young women he drags home. Now a teenager, Tim must make a life or death choice between following in Bob’s footsteps or breaking free from his captor.

Fantasia 2012: ‘Chained’ (Review) SPOILER ALERT

Dream Movie Cast
Chuck Bronson

“Terror starts at home” or so what Jennifer Lynch makes of it. Filled with despair, fear and the traumatic events of growing up, Chained is an absolutely mesmerizing and enveloping story about a serial killer taking in a child and raising him to be his family. Starring Vincent D’Onofrio as the terrifying and physically intimidating warped sociopath, Jennifer Lynch truly makes great use of the barren “middle of anywhere U.S.A.” and gnaws at the core humanity in all of us. The film had its World Premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival.

Starring Vincent D’Onofrio as the terrifying and physically intimidating warped sociopath, Jennifer Lynch truly makes great use of the barren “middle of anywhere U.S.A.” and gnaws at the core humanity in all of us [bringing] about the atmospherics of “daily life” and the horror that begins at home.
It’s difficult to talk about the film without ever constantly coming back to D’Onofrio, an actor who’s always gone all-in when it comes to these sorts of roles. Who could ever forget Full Metal Jacket? No one. D’Onofrio’s portrayal of Bob is enthralling; his body hunched over almost childlike himself with a slight lisp. He’s not stupid, but is slightly naïve about the relationship he tries to cultivate with Rabbit, the boy he kidnapped and brought up under his control. Rabbit’s story begins when he and his mother Sarah Fittler (Julia Ormond) were leaving from a movie theater and got into the wrong cab, driven by Bob. Portrayed at two distinct “growing” stages, Evan Bird provides deep emotional terror as a young boy and the film quickly skips ahead several years to show a victimized and “chained” up late-teen Rabbit (Eamon Farren). We see the routine he’s had to live with for years, forcing him to clean after Bob’s kill, eat only what’s left for him after Bob’s eaten and finally realizing that the wanting to escape is much harder than expected.

Growing up from a truly warped childhood, Bob kills women because they’re born “sluts” and “whores”; traits attributed to women from all walks of life. When Bob was much younger, [SPOILERS] he was taking the brunt of his father’s abuse in order to protect his brother and was forced to have sex with his mother, which was his father’s twisted sense of becoming a “man” (in clear contrast to what his father truly wasn’t). [END SPOILERS] Thinking that Rabbit needed a woman to clear his mind, Bob forces him to choose a woman for his first kill. Strangely enough throughout all these years of abuse, Rabbit demonstrates that no matter how corrupted or how long we’ve become accustomed to violence and abuse, there’s always core humanity in all of us; one that we should and can strive to be better and change our destructive ways.

Needing to escape and in trying to save Annie (his chosen “first kill”), Rabbit gives away his plan to escape and save Annie to Bob and the ensuing sequence is heart-pounding and nerve-racking, you almost wish none of it was actually happening. D’Onofrio constructs a physical stature and presence, a calculated and precise mannerism that all leads Bob to an expulsion of rage, anger, bewilderment and betrayal. Wishing that you could save the little boy in him, but not before one more reveal that (in retrospect) you may have seen coming. The build-up has been so incredibly tense and immersive; you wonder why you didn’t ask yourself that question before.

In fact, it’s a testament to the filmmakers where the editing let’s performances breathe from the entire cast (noting that to edit Vincent D’Onofrio is the hardest task at hand) and the story being so tightly written by Damian O’Donnell (polished by Jennifer Lynch herself), the film is propelled by characters that the progression of the narrative and everyone’s motivation is sound and purposeful. We often don’t get a film like this and beautifully photographed by Cinematography Shane Daly; we need to relish them, to uphold is thematic relevancies and to better our society at large. Jennifer Lynch brings about the atmospherics of “daily life” and the horror that begins at home.

“Chained” with Vincent D’Onofrio. The Secret to Playing a Serial Killer

Vincent D’Onofrio has enjoyed a career playing characters who aren’t exactly warm and fuzzy. From his famous turn in Full Metal Jacket as the troubled Private Gomer Pyle, to Edgar in Men In Black, D’Onofrio has become a go-to man when it comes to psychotic characters. It certainly doesn’t hurt matters that he excels at the part.

With Chained, D’Onofrio plays Bob, a sadistic killer who preys upon families with his taxi. It’s another fine performance from the man, and he brings a lot of his characteristic quirks to the part. We had a chance to discuss the role with Mr. D’Onofrio recently.

When studying for Bob, did you research any serial killers?

Just as a person, not as an actor, I have no sympathy towards them at all. I think they should be locked up. As an actor, I explored it a lot to give Bob certain actions for why he does the things he does. As I approach this character, and telling the story properly with him, it’s about executing it correctly, so that the story is told properly so that it’s not about Bob and who he is, but an actual story. I made sure his tone and his behavior was a certain way that it fit the storyline.

You’ve played various characters with certain quirks throughout your career. What about that role attracts you?

It’s stuff that I bring to the part. If you were to read these scripts the story would be there, but you wouldn’t necessarily associate those things with the character. Most actors bring things to the part without changing any words, or changing any part of the story. We help tell the story in the way that we thought of, so there are things about Bob that were not scripted that I brought. If I think the story is interesting enough to tell, then that’s what I’ll bring to it.

When you’re playing a character with secrets or you have something to hide, how do you suppress that?

You do it like we do in real life; we behave like we don’t have them. The deeper the secret, the less you’ll be aware that somebody has them. It’s a secret that’s a very surface secret, we can detect when somebody is holding it back. But if it’s a really deep, dark secret then people behave normally. You’re supposed to behave like you don’t have one.

What was it like to work with Jennifer Lynch on this project?

She’s great. She’s a very hands-on director. She’s good at keeping things going with a very positive attitude, with a lot of great ideas at any given time. I’m going to work with her again on a film called Fall From Grace.

Fantasia 2012: Jennifer Lynch has ‘Chained’ the Serial Killer Monster

USA 2012 Fantasia imdb

“I shall call you… Rabbit,” is the most chilling line of any film this year. Spoken slowly but deliberately with a slight lisp and a faint Germanic accent by Vincent D’Onofrio, the voice alone places Bob somewhere between Hans Beckert and Jeffrey Dahlmer. D’Onofrio’s performance as Bob is a virtuoso effort by one of our great (albeit under-utilized) actors, delicately inhabiting a brute, like a ballerina trapped in a gorilla’s body.

“When I said I cast Vincent D’Onofrio, I was told that he was too TV… What The Fuck?! Have you not seen Full Metal Jacket?”

-Jennifer Lynch

Bob is a taxi driver whose specially modified cab makes it easier for him to kidnap women, drive them back to his isolated rural home, rape them and kill them. One day, he picks up Sarah Fittler (Julia Ormond) and her ten year old son Tim (Evan Bird) at the movies where they have just seen a horror film. After killing Sarah, Bob changes Tim’s name to Rabbit, telling him, “I didn’t choose you, but I will make the most of it.”

“I wanted to talk about abuse. I wanted to start a dialogue. The main thing is we have to fucking stop hurting the kids!”

-Jennifer Lynch

Rabbit becomes Bob’s servant, “You will have one job. You do what I say. You clean up my house,” which begins with cleaning up the remains of his mother. In time, teenage Rabbit (Eamon Farren) becomes Bob’s reluctant student and it becomes clear that Bob intends for Rabbit to become his son and heir.

“I wanted to write an original horror story… I decided not to do something supernatural, which left serial killers. I had seen films where someone is chased by the killer, Halloween, and I had seen films where the police chase the killer, Se7en, Silence of the Lambs, but I had never seen a film where an ordinary person is parachuted into a serial killer’s life and can’t get away.”

-Damian O’Donnell

Part of the genius of Chained is the way that Jennifer Lynch uses the rhythms of a home and a life and a father-son relationship to lull us into a form of Stockholm Syndrome along with Rabbit, only to twist the knife and remind us that Bob is a monster. This also allows her to give D’Onofrio screen time to truly develop Bob, to give him depth and dimension.

“He’s tough to cut. You just want to look at him forever.”

-Chris Peterson (editor)

It would be easy to categorize Chained as a nature vs. nurture story, but the film ends up being much more complicated than that. Lynch reveals a story of generational abuse in tiny drips, each splash causing us to reevaluate Bob’s life, but Lynch (and D’Onofrio) never let Bob off the hook for his actions. His past is a reason, not an excuse.

“Parents lend children their experience and a vicarious memory; children endow their parents with a vicarious immortality.”

-George Santayana

Bob sees Rabbit sometimes as a son, but mostly as a replacement. A replacement for the kid brother that Bob tried to protect from his father’s wrathful abuse and ultimately a replacement for Bob himself.

The greatest (and stupidest) tribute this film has received is from the MPAA who slapped the film with an NC-17 rating, for scenes of violence less gory, but more emotionally unsettling, than you will see from any horror fantasy franchise like Saw, Halloween or Friday the 13th.

“It would be easy to hate them. I wanted to hate them, but everyone in the MPAA were really nice people. When we went for our appeal, we played the film and then we got to speak and the lady who gave us the NC-17 rating got to speak. We pointed to the Saw films as examples of films that got an R rating with scenes much gorier than our film. They told us that our film felt too real.”

-Jennifer Lynch

Giving Chained an NC-17 rating is another bone-headed decision in a year when the MPAA seems determined to Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures itself into irrelevance. I don’t mean to suggest that Chained should be viewed in the same light as Bully, but there are worse films to watch with your 14 year old. And watching Chained would lead to a discussion about evil – real world evil – that would never happen from watching the cartoon carnage inflicted by Michael, Jason, Freddy or Jigsaw.

“If had made the movie more sexualized or funnier, I would have got away with the violence. I could have made the violence hyper-sexual. I have done that before, but it didn’t seem appropriate here. I could have made the movie funny, but I don’t think that abuse is fucking funny.”

-Jennifer Lynch

Maybe the best part of the film is the sound design from D’Onofrio’s voice to the pounding, percussive score that traps you in the nightmare. It is almost possible to believe that you could follow the film’s plot just by listening with your eyes closed and, in fact, in certain parts of the film that is exactly what you can must do.

“And you, you that call yourselves collectors. Until now, you have all sustained fantasies in which you are the maltreated heroes of your own stories. Comforting daydreams in which, ultimately, you are shown to be in the right. No more. For all of you that dream is over. I have taken it away.”

-Dream from Sandman#14 ‘Collectors‘ written by Neil Gaiman

The problem inherent in most serial killer literature, whether on the page or on the screen, is that we tend to make our monsters into heroes, which is why Hannibal Lecter is getting his own TV series instead of Clarice Starling or Will Graham.

Jennifer Lynch and Vincent D’Onofrio dive deep into the abuse that creates monstrosities and emerge with the portrait of a complicated human monster, who is not once allowed to be the hero. The MPAA may believe that Chained is too real to be seen, but that is exactly why you should see it.

Bob, (Vincent D'Onofrio) Lays Down the Rules in Chained.

A new clip has come our way for Jennifer Lynch's new movie, Chained (review), and if we were you we'd play close attention to the following video as it lays down the rules you need to survive. Dig it. From the Press Release Perhaps the most terrifying human relationship is the one between a serial killer and his target. But what if it starts that way and becomes something...more? From the visionary mind of director Jennifer Lynch (Boxing Helena, Surveillance, Hisss) comes the dark fable Chained, coming to Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD October 2nd from Anchor Bay Films. With a stellar cast including Vincent D’Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket, Men In Black, “Law and Order: Criminal Intent”), Gina Phillips (Jeepers Creepers, “Ally McBeal”), Conor Leslie (“90210”), and Evan Bird (“The Killing”) with Jake Weber (Dawn of the Dead, “Medium”) and Julia Ormand (My Week With Marilyn, “Mad Men,” The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Chained is an unforgettable ride into the darkness that can reside in the human heart – no matter what your age. The Chained Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD also includes, as a bonus feature, the scene that prompted the MPAA to give the film an NC-17 rating! SRP is $26.98 for the DVD, and $29.99 for the Blu-ray™ Combo Pack. Coming home from a routine trip to the movies, eight-year-old Tim (Bird) and his mother, Sarah (Ormond), are picked up by a psychopathic cab driver named Bob (D’Onofrio). It ends up being their last ride together. Bob murders the young boy’s mother and keeps Tim as his unwilling protégé, making him clean up the mess following each murder he commits. After a couple of aborted escape attempts, Bob chains Tim - now renamed Rabbit - allowing just enough length to move freely within the house. As the years pass, Bob starts instructing Rabbit, teaching him anatomy and human behavior. Now a teenager, Rabbit (Eamon Farren, X: Night of Vengeance) is slowly being pressed by Bob to start his own homicidal spree. Slowly but surely, he must soon choose whether to follow in Bob’s serial killer footsteps or make one final, desperate attempt to break free... Bonus features on Chained Blu-ray™ and DVD include feature-length audio commentary by writer/director Jennifer Lynch and actor Vincent D’Onofrio; the alternate unrated version of “Mary’s Murder;” and the original theatrical trailer.