11 - Raze

    A lot of women are held captive by some organization that pits them in death matches against each other.
    I saw that AV Club gave this a terrible rating - D+.  I saw it only out of vague curiosity.
    I can say that it's better than a D+.  But it's a limited-appeal market.
    The action is strangely the least interesting part.  And the movie takes a bit longer to get to the more interesting elements.  Once we see the contestants in a group, the movie gets more interesting.  We get a bit of personality in each character.  We figure out who we should care about.  This development makes everything get more interesting.
    What I found much more engaging was the mystery of the backstory.  It reminded me a little of Hostel.  Or maybe, if Hostel had ended a little bit earlier, and we only found out that there was a gaming organization, but didn't learn anything about it.  I find this organization much more frightening though.  The Elite Hunting Club of Hostel is largely patronized by individuals.  The horror comes from the idea that some anonymous Joe you know from work might be interested in torture and murder on the side.  Despite being organized through a club, it's still an individual interest.  In this case, the interest in the event seems to be treated almost like a horse race.  It's a family event.   This is a significant spoiler, since it's revealed in the last few minutes.
    My reaction to this movie is even more puzzling, because I normally don't feel invested in a particular ending.  To spoil the movie completely; the heroine teams up with a new competitor to fake her death.  Using this method, she survives, and kills her way out of the place - killing the organizers, medics, guards, eventually reaching a ground level where there's a party.  She kills two guards, takes their guns, and runs through a crowd of family spectators.  She runs out into the sunlight, and runs across a bridge.  Halfway across it, she is shot by a marksman.
    I don't know if I mind the sad ending.  I think I just didn't like that she gave up so easily at the end.  She could have easily killed those who were a threat as she made her way out, she just got distracted by the sunlight.