Description

Animal lovers, this is the revenge thriller for you! The titular colour is the name of a 14-year-old dog, the loving sole companion of a golden age widower by the name of Avery (Brian Cox). Avery is a good man whose life has been wrought with personal catastrophe. As the film opens, he and Red go out to a lake for an afternoon of fishing. A trio of young delinquents happen across them, and decide to get their kicks by robbing the old man. Avery doesn’t put up a fight, and openly offers up all the money in his wallet—20 dollars. Out of pure, unprovoked meanness, one of the kids shoots Red dead. Avery is shattered. He tracks the kids down and goes directly to the shooter’s home, looking for a simple apology. The cleancut hooligan denies everything and his wealthy and influential father not only backs him up, but makes sure that the law will be on his side. With the death of Red, Avery has lost the last living thing that mattered in his world. He fills the emptiness with boiling obsession, following the thugs around town, forcing confrontations, until all involved are pushed onto a path of desperate, uncontrollable violence.

Based on a novel by Jack Ketchum (GIRL NEXT DOOR), and jointly directed in separate periods by Lucky McKee (MAY) and Trygve Allister Diesen (DRŘMMEFANGEREN), RED spins familiar DEATH WISH morality smash-ups into a gripping new breed that forces its audience to contemplate many uncomfortable questions. Is the unnecessary taking of an animal’s life murder? If so, what kind of justice is fitting? How far is too far... and what would you do? Brian Cox, who’s never been anything short of brilliant, turns in a remarkable performance seeped in wisdom and pain. He’s joined by a phenomenal cast that includes Tom Sizemore, Amanda Plummer, Richard Rhiele, Ashley Laurence and Robert Englund. Situations escalate and things turn bloody, but RED is not a cutthroat vengeance fest. Instead, it chooses to firmly lay its blows as a compassionate and deeply human tale of inhumanity. It does not explode. It whimpers. It cries. And it hurts.

—Mitch Davis