"The Factory" Movie Review

Runtime: 108 minutes

Release Date: October 20, 2012

Rating: R

Director: Morgan O'Neill

Mike (the ever sexy and ageless John Cusack, "The Raven") is a cop chasing down a serial killer who he's never seen before. That killer Carl (Dallas Roberts, "The Walking Dead") has a nasty habit of bringing women home, forcing them to "marry" him, and disappearing. After another body turns up, Mike and his partner Kelsey (Jennifer Carpenter, "Quarantine") agrees to help him track down the killer.

Everything changes when Carl nabs his next victim: Abby (Mae Whitman), who just so happens to be Mike's teenage daughter. The film jumps between scenes of Mike and Kelsey hunting down and tracking the serial killer and scenes of poor Abby stuck living with Carl and his two women. One of whom is pregnant and one of whom is willing to do anything for him. To top it all off, there's a chance that someone close to Mike might have a dark secret.

"The Factor" is the kind of thriller/horror flick that I like because it seems like something that could actually happen. A serial killer who keeps kidnapping women because he wants to have as many kids as possible? A guy who willingly kills a woman after she gives birth to one of those kids. One of the weirdest scenes in the film actually involves Mike stumbling on a dark room filled with babies in incubators.

Granted, the ending isn't nearly as strong as it should be. It does have an interesting twist that most viewers will see coming, but that twist is surprising to some viewers. Roberts is pretty great in the film, and it's nice to see him playing someone a little creepy after the last season of "The Walking Dead." I'm just surprised that I didn't hear about this movie sooner. I actually stumbled across it in the middle of the rental store, not knowing that Cusack even did this film. It was an interesting film that kept my attention, which is more than I can say for some recent horror flicks.