Catch Hell

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Catch Hell
Directed by	Ryan Phillippe
Written by	Ryan Phillippe Joe Gassett
Produced by	Ryan Phillippe Robert Ogden Barnum Holly Wiersma
Starring	Ryan Phillippe Tig Notaro
Cinematography	Steve Gainer
Edited by	Matt Landon
Music by	The Newton Brothers
Production company	Twisted Pictures
Distributed by	Entertainment One
Release date	October 10, 2014 (2014-10-10)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Catch Hell (also known as Chained or as Kidnapped) is a 2014 American thriller film written and directed by Ryan Phillippe. It is the only non-horror film from Twisted Pictures.

Synopsis[]

A faded Hollywood actor is kidnapped and subjected to both physical and psychological torture.^[1]

Plot[]

Reagan Pierce is shown in his fancy house. He gets in an airplane and flies to Louisiana for a film. The hotel is a bit "common" even though the receptionist says he will find his 'suite' "very L.A.". The 'suite' is a single room with a bathtub in it.

Reagan meets with the director in the lobby of the hotel. He gets interrupted by fans and takes a picture with them. He gets antsy about his director. He heads to the gym to work out. Multiple people are constantly staring at him, with a creepy vibe. He calls his manager, not wanting to do the movie. The manager basically says "Come on: You know you have to."

Cut to the next morning, he walks out of the lobby, a van pulls up. He thinks it's part of the whole scene of being picked up for the movie in a broke-down kind of way. The guys in the van say they're here to take him there. He gets in. They take him out to the middle of nowhere. After a while, he starts to worry: He doesn't know the number to call to check on rehearsal, so he asks. Junior, the front passenger, tells him he'll type in the number for him. Reagan hands him his cell phone, and then Junior doesn't hand it back. He just puts it in his pocket. Reagan laughs and says it's not funny. He asks for it back, but they don't give it to him.

They speed up and stop in front of a shack out in the middle of nowhere. They pull Reagan out of the van and throw him on the ground. Mike, the driver, punches him in the back of the head, over and over, until Reagan passes out. The two men carry him into the shack.

His phone rings back in his hotel room, but he's not here. The film crew can't find him for the movie.

Cut back to the shack, Reagan wakes up. His feet are being tied together. His hands are already chained. They dump out his stuff and walk out of the shack. Reagan realizes the chain on his hand is also fastened to the wall, and he cannot leave.

Reagan tries to talk to Mike about ransom, saying he can get him at least a million dollars and no one would ever know what happened. Mike comes in and says he doesn't care about money, takes out a knife and cuts down Reagan's face, from his temple down his cheek to his chin. He says his wife is Diana. Reagan says he doesn't know who Diana is.

Mike leaves the room and comes back with bolt cutters. Reagan asks what those are for. Mike tells him bolt cutters can cut through anything. They can cut through the chains holding him there like twigs. Mike then says he intends to use them to cut something off Reagan that's a lot softer, though. He starts to try to pull off Reagan's pants. Junior walks in and asks what he's doing. Mike says he's going to cut off his balls. Junior tells him not to, because he'll bleed out on the floor, then reminds him he wanted had wanted Reagan to stay alive for a while. Mike then tells Junior to give him the "gator thumper" – basically a cudgel with a heavy lead / metal head. Mike then takes Reagan's hands and stands on the chain so he can't move his hands, and beats his hands with the gator thumper, breaking his hands into a bloody pulp. He then hits Reagan in the head, knocking him unconscious again.

The camera shows the shack is surrounded by water: Lots of swampy forest, but nothing else around.

Reagan comes to, his hand is bandaged. Junior is hovering agitated nearby and says "We thought you was dead. You ain't moved in a day." Then gives him an oxy pill for pain. He says the pain will kill him before Mike does, if he doesn't swallow the pill. Mike walks in and tries to get him to remember his wife, saying she worked in wardrobe on one of his movies. Reagan says he doesn't remember, but if he did, he would never knowingly sleep with another man's wife.

Mike asks for his password to his phone. Reagan gives it to him. Mike pulls up the last info on his phone about 'Diana' and remarks that Reagan "never deletes any of his stuff". He reads back texts to her and gets mad and walks out after throwing the phone hard into Reagan's chest. Junior grabs the phone and finds naked photos of Reagan's ex-girlfriend actress, and a naked photo of Reagan. Mike opens Reagan's laptop and gets into it with the password.

Scene cuts to night, everyone except Reagan is asleep. Then it's morning. Junior is trying to feed Reagan something. Mike walks in and gets mad that he's trying to feed him. Mike reveals that he sent those naked pictures out to a lot of news sites. Then says it's time to feed the gators, which is where he goes into a room with a hole in the floor and swamp below, and poops through the hole. He sends a message via Reagan's Twitter account, something about 'Hollywood and Jews going to f*** themselves'.

Mike reveals that before he kills him, he wants the world to think he's the biggest piece of s***. He wants to take his entire reputation and everything from him, leaving him with nothing. But first, he's going to re-record Reagan's cell phone voicemail – making Reagan read it out loud, and he better make Mike "believe it". Reagan reads it to himself and tells him "it's weak, no one talks that way". Then he says that if he wants it to sound crazy, he'll make it crazy. He records a message that says "don't call me anymore, f*** off everybody. Especially Kristy, the Jews – praise be the Allah." He "will die an enlightened man."

Cut to the news reporting how Reagan is going crazy and claiming the photo leaks and tweets.

Cuts back to the shack. Mike walks in and tells him he "did good with the message". "You should be an actor." Mike reveals he used to be a cop. They took his badge a year ago for a domestic abuse charge. Then wants Reagan to tell him the story of how he hooked up with his wife. Reagan tells Mike that he gave her a ride home from work, saw a kitten she was keeping, then she tells Reagan about her scumbag husband who beats her – that he's a piece of s*** and takes it out on others. Reagan just listened, and she cried. She led him into the bedroom and they did stuff, making her orgasm four times. Then Reagan tells Mike that she said he could never make her orgasm.

Mike snaps, throws Reagan down and tases him. Reagan tells Mike to kill him. Mike says "not yet", and walks out to leave.

Junior pulls up. Mike tells him that he lost his "s*** in there", and that he'll "be back tomorrow", and "hopes Reagan stays alive until then". Mike tells Junior not to get soft on Reagan. Mike leaves, and Junior stays behind.

Junior walks in the shack and sees blood pooling on and leaking through the floor. Junior sees a pool of blood by Reagan's face and finds a tooth. It looks like Mike pulled Reagan's tooth out of his mouth after tasing him. Junior puts the tooth into his pocket.

Reagan wakes up to see a gator inches from his face with Junior on top of it, saying he just saved his life. He "ain't ever seen a gator come all the way inside the shack before. He probably smelled all that blood" and heard Reagan thrashing around. Junior then shoots the gator in the head and drags it out. He puts Reagan on a cot and wipes some blood off his mouth from where his tooth was pulled. Junior gets a phone call from Mike. Junior tells Mike that "He is still alive".

Cut to Mike in town at a security checkpoint.

Cut to Junior skinning the gator. He snorts some cocaine and is out around the woods. Reagan tries to get a knife off the wall, but falls, making noise. Junior hears it and comes in checking on the noise. Reagan just admits he made some noise, accidentally. Junior just says "mmhmm".

Reagan asks to piss, and asks him not to make him pee on himself again. Junior agrees, but says he has to keep his hands tied. He unhooks him from the wall.

Reagan says he can't walk. Then tells Junior he can't run, even if he wanted to, his legs are messed up and he doesn't even know where they are. Junior agrees, but says if he tries to run, he will snap him down. Junior takes him to the "bathroom" where there's a hole in the floor. Reagan thinks about jumping through the hole. Instead, he just pees and comes back out to Junior. The phone rings, and Junior say he has to answer. He's trying to get Reagan back on the cot a.s.a.p., so he can answer the phone, since Mike is checking in. He gets to it. Reagan asks what Mike's going to do to him. He tries to tell Junior that Mike is crazy. Asks him how he doesn't know Mike won't turn on Junior and kill him too, since once Reagan is dead, Junior will be the only witness.

Meanwhile, Mike is checking out all Reagan's bad publicity from the twitter posts and leaked photos. Mike is laughing hysterically.

Cut to the next day, Junior is grilling gator meat. He comes in and tells Reagan some sun might do him some good. He pulls him outdoors and tells him he'll help him take his shirt off and put sun cream on him. He doesn't, but he goes over to some post in the ground and does some chin ups and looks back over at Reagan, kind of heatedly. Then you hear him masturbating in a room in the house. Phone rings, and Junior comes out to answer it. Reagan is still on the cot outside, chained to it. Mike says he's at work, creating his alibi. He should be back around 1:30ᴀᴍ. Junior asks what about his alibi. Mike say he doesn't need one. They hang up.

Mike visits his ex-wife, Diana. She tells him he's not supposed to be there. Mike says he feels different, that he isn't a violent man anymore. She says she'll think about him seeing the kids. She asks for the cat and he grabs the cat off the porch, and hands it to Diana. Diana closes the door.

Back at the shack, Junior tells Reagan he loves his movies. That he used to be so cool, but he still loves his movies. Junior tells him he must take care of himself to look younger. Reagan tells Junior he looks pretty fit, asks if he works out; Junior is flattered.

Cut to the TV news, they say the photo leaks and tweets may not be what they seem, as there is surveillance video of Reagan getting into a van at the hotel, but all his belongings are still in his hotel room. Also, the voicemail he recorded is actually a verbatim quote from a movie he was in, where he was a kidnapped soldier. 'Kristy' was the name of Reagan's character in that movie.

The police are now looking for the van and the whereabouts of Reagan Pierce. They're not sure if it's some sort of code or a suicide threat. Back at the shack, Junior gives Reagan some gator meat. Reagan says it's good. Junior tells him he has a nice smile. Looks like he's flirting a little. Reagan picks up on it and asks if he has a girlfriend. Junior says no. Asks if Reagan has a girlfriend. Reagan says no, he just ended things. Then says, maybe it's time for something different. Junior offers him some more gator meat. Reagan says yes. While Junior walks away, Reagan grabs the extra length of his chain and puts it under his leg. Junior asks him if he ever tried it on with a dude. Reagan says if he gets drunk enough he's typically down for whatever. Junior tells him he has some whiskey. He goes to get the whiskey and does a little cocaine. Junior pours some whiskey into his mouth. Reagan says "it's working already." Junior says his heart is beating fast.

Junior starts kissing his neck. Reagan freaks out and says to get off him. Says he can't. Junior walks away upset. Reagan tries to calm him down. Junior says it's alright, because he 'roofied' [drugged] his gator stew. Junior "just has to wait a bit, and then he can get him at night." Reagan starts to feel the effects of the roofie, and seems to pass out. Junior walks over puts his hands in his mouth, getting aroused. He pulls off Reagan's pants. He takes off his own pants, and is about to rape Reagan when the phone rings. Reagan head-butts him and takes the chain, wraps it around Junior's neck, and strangles him.

Reagan is overcome by the drug and passes out for real. Mike tries to call back again, and sees in a google search there's a "mystery vehicle" the authorities are looking for in connection with Reagan's disappearance. Mike freaks and is driving there and calling over and over. Reagan wakes up to a gator snapping at Junior's legs. It bites Junior and carries him out the shack. Reagan can see the phone continues to light up with Mike calling. Reagan is able to get the chain off the wall, but can't undo his wrists.

Mike drives to Junior's mom's house looking for Junior; Junior isn't there. He mentions that the road to the shack is flooded, and that he's going to take a boat. Meanwhile, Reagan walks out of the shack to a car in the yard and sees keys in the vehicle. He gets in and tries to start the car, but it doesn't work.

Mike drives the boat up and gets out. He slips and sees Junior's dead body on the edge of the water and he gets angry. Mike goes to the shack and looks around for Reagan in there. There are no lights, so he's walking around with a flashlight. Mike says "oh, he's outside" after he can't find him in the shack and starts to walk back to the door. He sees Reagan and says he's "got him". Reagan says "yeah, you got me", and shoots Mike with some sort of spear gun. Mike drops and Reagan takes the gator thumper (heavy metal cudgel) and beats Mike on the chest until he dies.

The movie cuts forward to a reporter interviewing Reagan, with his arm in a cast; she asks when did he think he was going to live. He says he didn't at first, because even though the kidnappers were both dead, he still had to get to a boat, and he knew alligators were roaming around. So he thought to wait until morning. Reagan was pretty incoherent in the morning but he got in the boat. He was yelling, and men who were out fishing heard him. They found him and carried to land and got him to a hospital.

The movie's final scene opens with Reagan Pierce back at his house, where the movie opened. He gets a phone call from his manager, who says that his interview got amazing views, etc. Everybody wants him in their movies.

That night, after he's turned off all the lights, he's in bed and pulls up his e‑mails on his computer. He finds an e‑mail from 'Reginald Hester, Jr.' "Two goats in a pepper patch." The e‑mail says "Sorry we met like this, but some things are fun. Hope you like the movie I made, I used your phone for it. Your friend, Junior."

The video shows Reagan on the cot and Junior with the alligator skin on his back. He dances around the room like an alligator. Junior and Reagan are laughing in the video clip.

The credits roll.

Cast[]

• Ryan Phillippe as Reagan Pearce
• Ian Barford as Mike
• Stephen Louis Grush as Reginald 'Junior' Hester Jr.
• Tig Notaro as Careen Hester
• Russ Russo as Tim Remmit
• James DuMont as Tony Cunningham
• Joyful Drake as Diane
• Ray Wood as Butch
• Carol Sutton as Delores
• Heidi Brook Myers as Rhonda
• Jillian Barberie as Herself
• Michael Boyne as Howard Kyle (uncredited)
• as David (uncredited)

Development[]

The film was first announced in 2012, as Ryan Phillippe's directional debut under the title Shreveport. It was financed by producer Mark Burg through his Twisted Pictures label, and it was filmed in Louisiana.^[2][3]

The new title Catch Hell was confirmed on July 17, 2014. It was distributed by Entertainment One Films.^[4] The trailer was released on July 31, 2014.^[5]

Reception[]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 0% based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 3.81/10.^[6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[7]

Movie Nation called it "nothing more than the sort of exploitation film that Reagan Pearce has signed onto, in desperation, one that he and we realize will be no game changer for the movie star on screen or the one behind the camera."^[8] Slant Magazine awarded it one out of five stars, saying "Phillippe never digs into Pearce as a person, or ponders the solitary nature of the actor's lifestyle, and the effect, which lasts right up until the inevitable and self-serving conclusion in which Pearce's career is resuscitated in the wake of all the media coverage surrounding his disappearance, is that he's kept at a distance from the audience"^[9] The New York Times said "But a certain curiosity value arises out of Mr. Phillippe's coincidental occupation here as a professional actor and a director."^[1] We Got This Covered said, "I'm not saying I'll ever know what it feels like to be scrutinized by every gossipy website and television show, but Catch Hell is a failed attempt to help audiences understand the trials and tribulations of actors forced into an obsessive limelight."^[10] The Village Voice was more positive, saying "Catch Hell might not catapult Phillippe back into the spotlight, but as Junior, Grush is by turns ashamed, bashful, and dangerous; he could perhaps do more if given the chance."^[11]

References[]

External links[]

• Catch Hell at IMDb