Ice Cold in Phoenix

Rating:
Summary: Good independent effort
Review: Our main character, a handsome 27 year old drifter, goes on a killing/raping rampage because he needs to get back at the world for having had an abusive father as a child. When he drops by his old man's place to make peace with him, he's bluntly rejected and this event appears to trigger his criminal spree. A rash of kidnappings, rape and murder follows, as our hero makes the rest of the world pay for his miserable upbringing. Then he hooks up with a thuggish couple he encounters on the road, a fateful turning point in our main character's life.
This feature was shot on digital video, and the picture quality is very good, the photography has a good eye for the arid Arizona landscape, which serves as a metaphorical counterpoint to our characters' desperate lives. The film is sexually bold and its violence is swift and brutal, but both are justified and in context with the story at hand. There seems to be an undercurrent of social commentary in here which is never developed beyond the obvious, but the film's dog-eat-dog view of the world comes through loud and clear before the credits roll.
Note: The film was originally rated NC-17, then reedited to an R, and that is the version contained on this DVD.