Going into this film with only the title to go off, I assumed Amber Road would be some horror taking place on the backroads of America in the same style as Clinton Road. Well, it turns out that was a stupid assumption to make as this horror (written and directed by B. Luciano Barsuglia - Zombie Farm) falls neatly into the torture porn subgenre of horror, a sub genre that I don't particularly like.
James (William McNamara - Age of the Living Dead TV series) and his wife Mary (Janet Wang) have found themselves kidnapped by Pauline (Rachel Riley - The Black Room), a sadistic killer who live streams torture onto the dark web, specifically a website named 'Amber Road'. Meanwhile Emma (Elissa Dowling - Tommyknockers), a local police officer who is on leave after the murder of her husband, learns of the couple's disappearance after being visited by a P.I.
Even further into subplot territory, the enigmatic owners of Amber Road, who facilitate the online killings, find themselves caught up in a power struggle.
I'm never a fan of prolonged scenes of torture in films and so Amber Road really wasn't designed with me in mind. To be fair, while there is a whole bunch of torture of the kidnapped couple, there is quite a bit of film time that takes place away from the torture chamber. On the surface it seemed that Emma would be the protagonist, but in fact there are a variety of different characters who feature, perhaps most notably Pauline. I found her smugness to be really off-putting, I guess it isn't the intention to make the primary antagonist likeable, but it meant I really didn't care for the character, and so I didn't like following her around in her daily life as the local mortician. She gets more fleshed out as the eighty seven minute film runs its course, including some flashback sequences, but even when there are suggestions that she might not be as black and white evil as she appears, I still couldn't stand her 'holier than thou' attitude. She does probably get the most screen time, it felt that there should have been more scenes featuring Emma, but she only really features in a couple of them.
Some of the subplots felt tangential, none more so than the one featuring the owners of the website. These did feature some recognisable actors, such as the always entertaining Robert LaSardo (Bridge of the Doomed) and Tom Sizemore (Tommyknockers), but the cheesy effects used to simulate the dark web, and their confusing storyline meant that these moments were completely lost on me. Talking of fun appearances, it was cool to see Gregory Blair (Ugly Sweater Party, Garden Party Massacre) in a tiny role here.
The film is bloody, but a lot of what occurs is more implied than shown in great detail. There were some decent moments, a highlight was scenes of a man pruning a bush interspersed with various fingers being cut off of two victims. The torture scenes are many, but usually the damage is hidden behind lots of blood. Violence for no reason never appeals to me, and so I didn't enjoy these scenes much, even when it is suggested that the couple may not be as entirely innocent as they appear to be. At least it can be said that all the effects are practical ones, always good to see that.
Elsewhere there really isn't a lot more, plenty of scenes of characters standing around talking, and a slow reveal of what motivations for characters really are.
Amber Road due to its subject matter was never going to appeal to me. If you like your torture porn then add on another rotted zombie head to be my score. I found the slightly cheesy story and unlikeable characters to be off-putting, I can't say I enjoyed my time with this one too much. Amber Road releases exclusively on AlohaStream on 25th December in North America, coming to DVD/Blu-ray on 10th January, and across VOD on 30th January.
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