‘Survival is a killer.’
D-Tox is a 2002 American psychological horror-thriller film directed by Jim Gillespie (I Know What You Did Last Summer),
The movie stars Sylvester Stallone, Tom Berenger, Charles S. Dutton, Robert Patrick, Polly Walker, Jeffrey Wright and Kris Kristofferson.
The plot was based on the 1999 novel Jitter Joint by Howard Swindle. It was not released in the United States until three years later when it was given a limited release under the title Eye See You by DEJ Productions.
Plot:
Jake Malloy is an FBI agent whose girlfriend is murdered by a serial killer, and whose subsequent retreat into the bottle lands him with a stay in a remote Wyoming detox clinic.
Not long after he arrives, two of the clinic’s patients are discovered dead, and Malloy begins to investigate. It doesn’t take long for him to realise that the man who killed his girlfriend is staying with him there in the clinic. The only question is: which one of the patients is it?
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Reviews:
“Plagued with poorly developed, cut-out characters (the gung-ho maverick, the coward, the twitchy one), and a killer sporting a deliriously shallow motivation, you are never inclined to care about any of them. The talented cast are all victims to the surrounding histrionics.” BBC
“Despite its being sold as an upmarket thriller, D-Tox emerges as no more than a slasher film with a bigger budget. After having created this interesting setting and characters, the film appears disinterested in anything more to do with them. The setting and dark look amount to absolutely nothing and the burned-out characters are of no more significance than the usual run of faceless victims in a slasher film.” Moria
“Sylvester Stallone, far from the botoxed clump of sadness he is today, looks great – I could even say he looks attractive – and makes a good performance up there with Cop Land, Rocky and Rambo. D-Tox might not be the most original thriller made, but it’s very underrated and delivers the thrills.” Ninja Dixon
“It’s so silly and predictable that it’s genuinely funny to watch Stallone playing it straight, while the rest of the cast try to fit uncomfortably into their cliched roles. Then it gets astonishingly grisly and we realise we’re meant to actually be frightened. As if.” Shadows on the Wall
“Although it doesn’t offer much out of the ordinary to entice, D-Tox is a well made, routine thriller with a compelling cast.” Urban Cinefile
“Stallone moves away from his usual action persona with just enough charisma to carry off his role as the mourning drunk but the rest of the cast are strictly conveyor-belt fodder with the usual tragic histories that make them plausible suspects, which is a bit of a waste when you scan the impressive cast roster. A good and not overdone finale wraps things up nicely but much of D-Toxis a waste of its great setting and it ends up as a second-gear action/slasher fusion…” Vegan Voorhees
“All of this could’ve worked, I suppose. I guess maybe the blame lies on director Jim (I Know What You Did Last Summer) Gillespie. Instead of making the film into a tightly wound psychological thriller, he just reduces the second half of the film to nothing more than cheap scares and slasher movie clichés.” The Video Vacuum
“Being marred with re-shoots, recutting, and a mediocre script stops Eye See You from being good before it starts, and a colossal cast gets wasted while trying to outdo each other. Still, there are some good technical merits, a watchable mystery, and a very good performance from Stallone that doesn’t get enough praise. It’s just a shame thinking about what should’ve been.” Voices from the Balcony
Choice dialogue:
Doc: “Booze may be a slow burn but it’s still suicide.”
Cast and characters:
Sylvester Stallone … Jake Malloy
Charles S. Dutton … Hendricks
Polly Walker … Jenny
Kris Kristofferson … Doc
Mif … Brandon
Christopher Fulford … Slater
Jeffrey Wright … Jaworski
Tom Berenger … Hank
Stephen Lang … Jack Bennett
A.C. Peterson … Gilbert (as Alan C. Peterson)
Hrothgar Mathews … Manny
Angela Alvarado … Lopez (as Angela Alvarado Rosa)
Robert Prosky … McKenzie
Robert Patrick … Noah
Courtney B. Vance … Reverend Jones
Technical details:
96 minutes
Aspect ratio: 2.35: 1
Audio: DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS
Box office:
D-Tox only took $6,632,383 worldwide on a reported budget of $55 million. Ouch!
Trailer:
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