It comes down to this.
Your kiss.
Your fist.
And your strain.
It get's under my skin.
Within.
Take in the extent of my sin-- Nine Inch Nails, 5in

Stockholm Syndrome is a physical and psychological journey, dark, violent and seductive. A larger than life and deliciously cruel Damien Crosse puts Dennis De Nello, our abductee, to the question. Damien is powerful, filling the screen with his presence and masterfully breaks down Dennis’s defenses using everything at his disposal, namely Dennis’s body. The moment Dennis submits marks the beginning of the end. Damien flips the script and unties Dennis. Instead of offering pain he shows tenderness. Dennis is lulled into a false sense of security, needing to be possessed by his captor, as if that wasn’t his lot already. Damien obliges him, and fucks him within an inch of his life. The kiss at the end is so revealing. It’s a disconnect, the end game. Dennis doesn’t see it coming. Nor do I, having fully surrendered to the scene. I love characters that suffer well. Dennis did it so convincingly, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I perversely enjoyed Damien punching him, spitting on him, and impaling himself on Dennis.

The camera work here is spectacular, mirroring Dennis’s mental state. Jarring and disorienting in the beginning, the camera steadies as Dennis makes his final descent into hell. The gunshot at the end feels like someone snapped his fingers bringing me abruptly back to reality from my hypnotic state. I don’t recall what I was doing, it’s as if it never happened, but there’s blood on the screen.

The best kind of entertainment is when I suspend all disbelief and fully connect with the material. How could Team Stag Homme possibly know the image a man, beaten, drugged and tied to a chair would resonate so deeply with me? They couldn’t, but they did. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

Stockholm Syndrome is nothing less than magnificent.