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Vindicta was directed by Sean McNamara, written by Ian Neligh and Steven Paul, and stars Elena Kampouris, Travis Nelson, Sean Astin, Jamie M. Callica, and Jeremy Piven. It follows a detective and a paramedic as they work to uncover the identity of a serial killer amidst citywide terror.

The Plot: Putting a killer case inside a web of corruption is hardly an original narrative to spin, which should mean it’s not too difficult to make it competent, at least. However, the scribes of Vindicta have too many things in mind, failing to flesh out or focus on anything, making the plot a mess.

Seattle’s high-profile officials have received several accusations of citywide corruption, leading to riots in the streets; one example of this chaos is a building going up in flames exactly five years after it almost collapsed for the same reason. Corruption becomes a non-point, and in the meantime, paramedic Lou (Kampouris) is out to impress her father, Patrick (Piven, wasted in a small role), and fire chief Rick (Astin) on her first day of the job. Vindicta makes no bones about these threads being connected, raising hope for a sense of genre focus, but several uninteresting subplots dilute the potential result.

On that first day, Lou partners with Jason (Callica) and enters a rough part of town, only to find a reporter murdered and strung up, and the scene adorned in Latin, revealing the presence of a serial killer in the area to the characters. There’s an interesting idea there, but the writers overplay their hand, essentially pointing fingers before Vindicta gets going. When it does get going, it splits into scenes about Lou and police officer Russo (Nelson) – as well as Rick to an extent – investigating the rising deaths owing to the killer, and scenes of Lou’s grief, which should eventually converge for a cohesive narrative.

While they do collide, they don’t connect meaningfully, as the motive has been spelled out for a long time, and the insistence on setting the plot during a wider event doesn’t add anything of substance, as it all comes back to that one building.

The Characters: Because of the movie’s horror overtones, a lot of minor characters come and go without much to differentiate them from each other. However, even the main characters are listless, as most are canned cliches that add nothing to the feature.

Lou is the single well thought out character in the mix, having goals, challenges, and some degree of personality. Her aspiration to save lives as an EMT owes itself to the death of her mother, but that trauma also leads her to issues of overthinking and triage prioritization, putting her in the crosshairs of Rick’s scrutiny. Vindicta creates a compelling battle for Lou, tacking on her father’s history as a lawman for added pressure, but the movie doesn’t make the overarching plot as personal, leaving the character far more engaging than the narrative.

Russo is present only because the writers needed a gun in someone’s hand. He’s a generic stoic type, doing very little aside from pointing out obvious clues. Crucially, he has no chemistry with Lou, delivering lines to her in the same fashion as he does to just about everyone else. A real partnership, or even a rivalry, is out of the question. The only thing tying them together is their shared sighting of the killer and his handiwork.

Aside from the limited presences of Jason and Rick, Vindicta doesn’t have much else to work with in terms of major participants. The former acts as Lou’s guide for a short time, and the latter provides verbal feedback, but don’t register beyond their required purposes. Lou can save many people, but not the movie’s weak roster.

The Crime: McNamara presents the events of the film with a slasher spin, but that doesn’t cover up the logistical holes and the surprising lack of even slightly engaging procedural investigation.

Many movies use their antagonist’s gimmick to set themselves apart, and Vindicta tries its own hand at doing so. The killer in this instance has stolen several historical torture devices during the riots, clad himself in a statue of David mask, and communicates only in Latin. It’s an interesting visual but holds little narrative value. Establishing revenge as the motive makes the theatricality of his actions moot, and the writers don’t manage to tie said actions to anything remotely relevant to his getup, though I don’t really know how they could have.

Patrolling the streets while on the clock brings about a few miscellaneous encounters for the primary characters, and they’re at least more mindfully executed, but it’s hard not to wish for better. As Lou and Jason aid injured citizens, they run into unsavory types like drug dealers and looters, which devolve into bland physical encounters. Though there are a few highlights, like some homeless people balking at the medics asking questions instead of accepting their help, adding more questions, they’re outnumbered by unremarkable beats.

Procedural work is the least engaging part of Vindicta, as it could be done by anyone with access to a Latin to English dictionary, or even with Google translate. This goes back to Russo not having a purpose, as he gets Lou through the red tape only for her to translate the Latin and put together the pieces. Even then, it’s not like there’s much legwork to do, as McNamara spells out the destination long before reaching it.

The Technics: Seemingly a director who enjoys the process far more than viewing the result, McNamara churns out a thoroughly subpar feature on a technical level without regard to fine details.

Making note of Seattle’s troubles only serves to place emphasis on Vindicta’s limited scale and scope. Insert shots of street-level riot footage don’t do much to mask these issues either, as the movie mostly takes place within a one block radius that’s shot from two angles to avoid breaking the veneer. Add to that some blatantly obvious props (several supposedly heavy objects look like they’re made of balsa wood), a few cheap sets, and dismal CGI, and you’ll be left wondering why the film couldn’t be better tailored to its means.

Behind the camera, not much sticks out in a positive or negative way. McNamara doesn’t frame encounters with any flair, but he does manage to briskly capture the cracking foundations of a city, despite glaring flaws. Unfortunately, his handling of tone isn’t as unremarkable. The movie teeters into grindhouse territory just as often as it tries to mine Lou’s personal grievances, most of the time to ill effect. Maybe something from the page was lost on its way to the screen, but there’s an imbalance that affects every scene, even when they connect.

Vindicta demands a lack of scrutiny, but in a procedural movie, that’s a contradiction. Among many other oppositional choices and a bland core, there’s no reason to vindicate your preconceptions about the movie.

33/100