The Factory - An Underrated Art

Morgan O’Neill’s “The Factory” is about Detective Mike Fletcher (John Cusack), a rugged and obsessive police officer, and his partner Kelsey Walker (Jennifer Carpenter), on the trail of a serial killer who prowls the streets targeting young streetwalkers. When Fletcher’s teenage daughter disappears, he discovers that the killer has kidnapped his daughter after mistaking her for a prostitute. Fletcher's obsession goes into overdrive when he drops all professional restraint to get the killer and save his daughter. The movie stars Dallas Roberts, Michael Trevino, Mae Whitman, and many others alongside John Cusack and Jennifer Carpenter. The movie is also based on true events, the Ariel Castro kidnappings are believed to be the events the movie is based upon: Between 2002 and 2013, three young women—Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina "Gina" DeJesus, were kidnapped by Ariel Castro and held captive in his home in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio.

O’Neill was smart in setting her movie in the dead of winter. “The Factory” is captivating in many ways, with its twists and turns throughout the film, sitting on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next. It is set in the dead of winter, making the atmosphere of the movie more daunting. The snowy setting makes you feel a sense of urgency, because the snow to us symbolizes hardships and death. During the winter, trees go dormant and lose their leaves; animals hibernate, some even sleep away the winter, because they know very well that they could die. We obviously know, whether we think this consciously or not, that the same fate could be for us if we are faced with the harsh winter.

The only thing “The Factory” could have used some help on is the constant volume spikes and falls. It is almost impossible to watch the movie without having to either turn up your volume high and quickly back down low every few minutes, or just with subtitles because you cannot gauge what the characters are saying in fear of a high-pitched scream in the near future. It’s hard to appreciate and get lost in the film when you are only focusing on keeping the volume at an acceptable level.

That being said, I believe “The Factory” is a brilliant movie. It is currently on Netflix, and has a rating of only 5.8 out of 10 on IMDb. I disagree with this completely. There are so many loops, it throws your head for a spin, and I occasionally caught myself almost yelling at my television while watching by myself. Who doesn’t love a thriller that makes you wish you were in it so you could help them out? While the movie touches on topics that are inappropriate, or vulgar, for some people, and can be described as “creepy” or “disgusting,” I find the movie incredibly intriguing. “The Factory” gets an 8/10.