HORROR FILM REVIEW: ​LOU SIMON’S 3

by Joe X Young

 A man and a woman kidnap her rapist in order to extract a confession, but how far are they willing to go for justice?

Good question with a very good answer.

Whenever I see films which don’t have a regular title but have a kind of brand name such as “Rob Zombie’s this”, or “Quentin Tarantino presents that”, I’m always a little wary because it seems to me that the person is trading on a reputation more than on the actual substance of the film. Lou Simon’s 3 is one film I shouldn’t have been concerned about as it is very different from the standard torture porn doing the rounds these days.

As you can gather from the first line the premise is somewhat simple, and it is indeed straightforward in that the victim of a rape involving mutilation is assisted in bringing the rapist to a secluded property so that he can be forced to confess on camera to the crime he committed. All is not what it seems, as the guy helping the woman has certain methods in mind of extracting the information which the woman is worried about because the guy has serious anger issues and without his medication all bets are off.

There’s a further complication in that the woman has a form of PTSD following the rape, and recollections are somewhat fuzzy to say the least, more so as Rohypnol was involved. This leads her assistant to wonder whether or not he is actually making a mistake and torturing a confession out of an innocent man.

With the excellent cast for the most part limited to 3 people and a single location it’s quite difficult to tightly maintain an entire movie, however 3 managed to hold my attention throughout. The plot is constructed in such a way that it’s never entirely obvious which way things are going to go, and there are several revelations which pile on the uneasy sense that the kidnapped man didn’t rape her after all.
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Brutally sadistic in places yet not gratuitous Lou Simon’s 3 is a refreshing take on the revenge tale and I hope to get the opportunity to see more of Lou Simon’s work in the future.