''The Aggression Scale'' is a 2012

action thriller film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

directed by Steven C. Miller. It stars

Ray Wise Raymond Herbert Wise (born August 20, 1947) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Leland Palmer in ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991, 2017) and its prequel film '' Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me'' (1992), Vice President Hal Gardner in ...

Dana Ashbrook Dana Vernon Ashbrook (born May 24, 1967) is an American actor, best known for playing Bobby Briggs on the television series ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991, 2017) and its 1992 prequel film '' Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me''. Early life Ashbrook was ...

Derek Mears Derek Mears (born April 29, 1972) is an American actor and stuntman. Often appearing in horror and science-fiction titles, he came to prominence for portraying Jason Voorhees in the 2009 reboot of ''Friday the 13th''. His film roles also include ...

Fabianne Therese Fabianne Therese Gstottenmayr is a Sri-Lankan American actress and director known for starring in several successful independent films including Netflix's ''Teenage Cocktail'' (2016), ''John Dies at the End'' (2012), Anchor Bay's ''The Aggressio ...

, Ryan Hartwig, and

Jacob Reynolds Jacob Reynolds (born May 13, 1983) is an American film actor. He is known for his role as Solomon in the cult film ''Gummo''. Career Jacob Reynolds began acting at age four. His career started with an American television commercial for Ritz C ...

Plot

Mob boss Bellavance (

) is released from prison on bail, and discovers that $500,000 of his money is missing. With only two days to flee to a non-

extradition Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisd ...

country, he instructs four of his henchmen, led by Lloyd (

), to retrieve the money and send a “loud and messy” message to the thieves’ families. The last house they visit is a rural property belonging to Bill Rutledge (

Boyd Kestner Boyd Kestner (born November 23, 1964) is an American actor. Kestner starred in ''The Outsiders (U.S. TV series), The Outsiders'' television series, and later became well known for his role as Alex Barth in the television drama ''Knots Landing''. ...

), who has just relocated with his emotionally disturbed young son Owen ( Ryan Hartwig), his new wife Maggie ( Lisa Rotondi) and her daughter Lauren (

). Breaking in, the men execute Maggie and torture Bill for the location of the money, whilst another, Chissom chases Lauren. She is rescued by Owen however, who uses a baseball bat and

box cutter A box (plural: boxes) is a container used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or very large (like a shipping box for furniture), and ca ...

blades to injure the man, allowing the two to escape. Owen attempts to rescue his father, but despite injuring another hitman is forced to flee into the woods with Lauren whilst Lloyd kills Bill. Inside the house, Lloyd and Freddie (

) uncover medical paperwork showing that Owen was

institutionalised In sociology, institutionalisation (or institutionalization) is the process of embedding some conception (for example a belief, norm, social role, particular value or mode of behavior) within an organization, social system, or society as a who ...

due to violent behaviour after permanently disabling three highschool bullies, scoring almost full marks on the aggression scale. His father was only able to get him discharged by using the money stolen from Bellavance. Chissom and Wydofski ( Joseph McKelheer) follow the children into the woods, but the former is further injured by a

booby trap A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a human or another animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap m ...

set by Owen, whilst the latter is stabbed to death by Lauren when he gains the upper hand against her stepbrother. Under cover of darkness, Owen and Lauren break into a local used car dealership to obtain transport, however they are ambushed by the three remaining men. Freddie is killed when Owen stabs him in the skull with Wydofski’s

hunting knife A hunting knife is a knife used during hunting for preparing the game to be used as food: skinning the animal and cutting up the meat. It is different from the hunting dagger which was traditionally used to kill wild game. Some hunting knives ...

. Lloyd shoots Owen and takes Lauren back to the house, believing she can tell him where the money is located. However, Owen survives when the bullet deflects off a stolen hub cap he placed in his jacket earlier. A badly injured Chissom returns from the woods, and is shot by Lloyd for his incompetence. Following Lloyd and Lauren back to the house, Owen uses

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogeno ...

and bleach to create a chloramine gas trap that incapacitates Lloyd in the basement, before killing him by throwing a dresser down the stairs onto his head. The next morning, Owen and Lauren arrive at Bellavance's hideout as he prepares to leave the country. He opens an envelope that contains Polaroids of his dead men, and then looks up to see the two driving the family rental van right towards him.

Cast

as Bellavance, a recently bailed mob boss. *

as Lloyd, the leader of the hitmen. *

as Chissom, a hitman working for Bellavance. *

as Bill Rutledge, a former associate of Bellavance and Owen's father. * Ryan Hartwig as Owen Rutledge, Bill's emotionally disturbed teenage son and Laurens step-brother. * Lisa Rotondi as Maggie Rutledge, Bill's new wife and the mother of Lauren. *

as Lauren Rutledge, Maggie's daughter and Owen's step-sister. *

as Freddie, a hitman working for Bellavance. * Joseph McKelheer as Wydofski, a hitman working for Bellavance.

Releases

The film premiered at

South By Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...

where it was bought and distributed by Anchor Bay. It released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of s ...

on May 29, 2012.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aggression Scale 2012 action thriller films 2012 films American action thriller films Films directed by Steven C. Miller Films shot in New York (state) Home invasions in film 2010s English-language films 2010s American films

Plot

Cast

Releases

See also

References

External links