The Victim

Michael Biehn – 2011 – USA

I lost a lot of respect for Michael Biehn due to this shameless (or shameful) vanity project calculated to show off both his and his wife’s bodies but not their acting talents.  I have no idea what gave Biehn the idea that he was a filmmaker, but he sadly, clearly isn’t.  Scenes are shot haphazardly with only a modicum of competence, and the cast seems to be struggling eternally to be as histrionic as the director demands.  As a simple thriller, the plot had potential, and in the hands of anyone like, say, William Friedkin or even Ti West, it could easily have become a template for a rewarding film.  The most troubling thing to me about this really cruddy production is that it shines a spotlight on the core weakness in Biehn that has kept him off the A-list since the 80s.  His best performances were achieved under the control of fairly forceful directors, (most famously James Cameron several times, but also Friedkin twice); otherwise, he unfailingly lapses into embarrassing actor clichés and generally overdoes everything.  What The Victim gives us is possibly Biehn’s worst performance, thanks to him being directed by one of the worst directors ever to direct him; himself.