Nerdly » HorRHIFFic 2025: ‘Torture Day’ Review

05th Mar2025

HorRHIFFic 2025: ‘Torture Day’ Review

by Phil Wheat

Stars: Annabella Rich, Nikki Marshall, Ross Doney, Cy Henty, Terrence Betts, Brent Hunter, Rae Michaelson, Les Brewster, Wayne Thompson, Dawn Daroczy, Holly McGregor-Ogden | Written and Directed by S N Sibley

Sam Mason Bell produces and worked as a cinematographer on the film, from low-budget filmmaker S N Sibley, but this is a far cry from his film A Final Exorcism. This is more down and dirty Guerilla filmmaking – that looks like it was shot with a digital camera or even iPhone, with in-camera sound that rattles your ears at times.

I’m assuming the low-budget nature of the film is the reason for the largely silent scene-setting opening, which blares out its ominous soundtrack over scenes of our killer, Lewis, walking the streets, taking a victim in a brutal bottle to the stomach (played by Annabelle Rich who looks to be vying for 2025 British scream queen of the year at this rate!) and eyeing up new ones – including Ashleigh, played by Nikki Marshall, who Lewis suffocates in her living room.

Lewis (played by Ross Doney, though the character is called Tony in the end credits) then persuades Robert (Cy Henty), Ashleigh’s husband, to help him dispose of her body, threatening him that he’ll be a suspect in the death as, as Lewis puts it, Ashleigh suspected him of having an affair… and told people in her life. The problem? Well besides Robert being an unwilling accomplice, is that the car along with the body they’re transporting inside, is stolen by two carjackers, Tony and CJ. Now Lewis and Robert set off to hunt Tony and CJ, killing anyone who gets in their way!

Apparently based on Luigi Cozzi’s 1975 giallo The Killer Must Kill Again which, I’ll be honest, is one of the few Cozzi films I haven’t seen, Torture Day actually plays out like a Giallo meets comedy of errors – after all serial killer Lewis is caught by his victim’s husband, who bizarrely goes along with Lewis plan; then the pair are carjacked by a couple of bumbling thieves who are so drunk it’s hard to believe they could even carry out any crimes!

Halfway through the film we’re introduced to a group of people looking to take PR pictures and shoot a video for the release of a new album and, of course, they stumble across the stolen car and get mixed up in the mess. It’s that group that uncovers Ashleigh’s body in the boot because our bumbling thieves never thought to check over the car to see if it had anything valuable in it! So now we’ve got a serial killer, his unwilling accomplice, a car thief and HIS hostages all wrapped up in the death of Ashleigh… Meanwhile, Lewis keeps getting mistaken for a police officer. Told you this was a comedy of errors.

When two more crew members show up to the shoot, Lewis gets his hands on THAT outfit – meant for the music video but instead perfect for a serial killing madman loose in the woods – and that’s when Torture Day takes a leaf out of the traditional slasher movie playbook and Lewis, all dolled up in a mask and leather jacket, goes off a woodland killing spree complete with some wonderful bloody kills – and a soundtrack that channels some superb synth and a banging drum beat to really capture the spirit of both slashers AND giallo. Though, unfortunately, this portion of the film starts to drag with scene after scene featuring Lewis and his victims running around the woods and the local scare attraction that lies within.

If you can look past the ultra-low budget nature of Torture Day‘s production and the issues thereof, there is actually a fun, and funny, slasher movie to be found. Plus you get to see Cy Henty (Video Shop Tales of Terror 2, Slasher Hous3) give a truly unhinged monologue towards Lewis that’s worth the price of admission alone!