Horror Short Review: Forced Entry (2020)

From K.M. Jamison and James Bett Jr comes 20-odd minutes of guttural violence and no-holds-barred gore. Forced Entry is a tribute to exploitive cinema from the 80’s and purveyors of such nastiness will find themselves at home here.

The story surrounds the characters of Arthur Maddox (Tom Lodewyck) and Donovan Hatche (Jim Bett Jr.) who just happen to be psychotic. They like nothing better than to drift through America, finding victims (normally young women) before murdering them and mutilating their bodies.

The first few minutes of this film showcases all of this in eye-watering style and it won’t come as too much of a surprise to learn that a lot of the violence on show is sexualised. Does that offends? Well, you’ve probably been very selective with your horror over the years.

We’re focusing on the violence here because there really isn’t that much of a story to tell you about. The two men go from victim to victim and make them suffer. There isn’t a lot of dialogue nor meaty moments of acting to get into. That does work against it but because of its short runtime, it’s easier to stomach. Provided you’re not completely turned off by the imagery on show which many will be.

There is a realism to Forced Entry and that isn’t going to be for everyone. It’s nasty and it’s fun to think that once upon a time that would have landed this sort of film in a lot of trouble. How far we’ve come.

What is quite interesting is that Forced Entry was produced as a proof of concept for a feature-length film. Taking what we have here, telling a story and giving the characters more to do, you can see this working as a feature-length film. As a short? It’s enjoyable provided you see it for exactly what it is. Unhinged violence meant to make you grimace. You can check out the trailer below.