The Odds

Kamurai8/10

Jun 19, 2021

View on TMDb

Really good watch, would watch again, and can recommend. Abbi Butler is amazing in this, a sort of paired down version of "Would You Rather". Not only do the characters do a wonderful transformation through the movie, reminding me of a twisted double helix, but the idea of the physical lengths she goes to are fantastic. If you're into horror-torture, then you've probably seen the "SAW" franchise, and "Would You Rather", and I don't think this will disappoint. It's not "Hostel", but there are definitely enough scenes that will either make you uncomfortable or uncomfortably happy.

The Odds is They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by way of Saw, to make it accessible to viewers who are as intellectually challenged as the protagonist. This film revolves around an underground game of resistance to pain, where competitors play for a considerable sum of money, something that they could not accomplish if they didn’t have a very high pain threshold. In other words, the game’s creator is a sadist, but the contestants are masochists, so it’s really a victimless crime. The contest in The Odds is so logistically impossible, that it's no surprise to anyone other than the female lead — to the point that IMDb has no qualms about revealing it in its synopsis for the film — when it turns out there are no other participants, let alone a million dollar prize, and the whole thing boils down to the villain making his own unauthorized Saw sequel. The question is, how could the heroine not have seen this coming? When she learns that there are supposedly people betting on the competition, she says, “It's weird that people bet on something like this.” It's much weirder than she thinks. “Serious bettors calculate odds on anything,” says the antagonist, and he's absolutely right. But what he and she conveniently ignore is that the odds of a contest's outcome are not calculated at random. In fact, it involves a process called handicapping, which in turn requires a deep understanding of the competitors' backgrounds. Now, maybe I'm wrong, but I highly doubt anyone anywhere keeps track of statistics related to such events as 'putting your hand on a lit candle and holding it there'. If the villain is so clever, why add this unnecessary and implausible extra layer to his ruse? We know she's not about to give up any time soon, no matter how much she squirms as the candle burns a hole in her palm, and thus we are left without any suspense or tension. Since it's impossible for us to make an emotional investment in the story, there's no reason to make or watch this movie other than the sick pleasure of seeing an actress pretend to be in pain – which makes The Odds not just dumb but also immoral.