Death Sentence

not recommended—except for fans of the Saw franchise, who may find interest in watching Wan tackle something other than straight-up horror.

director: James Wan
year: 2007

Based on a novel by Robert Garfield. After his hockey star son is murdered in a random slaying and the court system fails to bring the killer to justice, an executive family man (Kevin Bacon) takes revenge into his own hands, waging personal war on the punk and street gang responsible.


With Death Sentence, James Wan steps out from behind the Saw, and remakes Death Wish in a style that reflects his horror films but without the smarts that make a good revenge flick. Neither agitation nor timely—there's nothing in the movie that justifies it being remade in 2007—the escalating violence is matched only by an escalating stupidity that culminates with the pissed off father rising straight from his hospital bed and entering a cheesy montage of loaded guns and macho poses before letting loose the fury of an average Joe scorned. The idiot policewoman who pops up throughout the film like a whack-a-mole can only stare at the open hospital window with fluttering curtains and utter profound truths about the self-destructive nature of vengeance. Some time prior, Wan also waxes on parental grief to the tune of what sounds like Sarah McLachlan covering Enya. Guns, however, still rule the day; and the end of the film brings mutilation and bullet-ridden corpses enough to placate those wanting their share of high contrast Saw-like violence.

The verdict: Death Sentence.