The Aggression Scale

Didn't you sometimes wish when you watched Home Alone that Macaulay Culkin would get a little more psycho? Make the burglars really suffer? Make them bleed? No? Well evidently writer Ben Powell and director Steven C. Miller did. The Aggression Scale is low-budget thriller that takes the home invasion flick and adds a nasty little twist.

When bad guy Lloyd (Ashbrook) and his thuggish colleagues come looking for their boss's missing money at a family's secluded home they don't count on the welcome they will receive from Owen, the family's just-out-of-the-mental-institution son. All those survivalist manuals and a distinct lack of empathy serve 14-year old Owen well as he turns into a savant Jason Bourne. Initial premise aside, there's nothing particularly original in The Aggression Scale, nor is it made with any great flair. But after this summer's bloated, self-important blockbusters, there's an undeniable pleasure to be had from the film's gruesome efficiency.