For the number of grunts there are in this movie, you would think it’s competing with Kill Bill. I am Rage, directed by David Ryan Keith, gave me multiple episodes of Deja Vu because the fight sequences and their beats are so similar that I thought I had seen them before, in the same film, that is. Is it a ‘revenge thriller,’ or is it a ‘slasher movie,’ or is it a metaphor for feminine rage? I guess writer Stephen Durham didn’t care too much. Otherwise, why would he build up a story such as this, which feels so ‘co-incidental’, yet at one point the film managed to grip me, until the repetitive action scenes took me out of it. It seems the idea was to take the best parts of all the relevant subgenres and put them in a melting pot to see what came out. The performances are decent, but how many times can an actor repeat the same thing in the same movie?
The story of I am Rage revolves around a woman named Erin who gets into a relationship with Adam. Adam takes Erin to his parents’ estate, and she soon begins to find out that Adam and his family are involved in an evil cult that trades in human blood. Erin is left with no choice but to fight. Her only ally is her traumatic past, which she had tried to keep hidden but decided to unleash on Adam and his family.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What happens in ‘I am Rage’?
A beautiful young blond woman slits the throat of a man in chains after he tries to escape. She doesn’t miss out on collecting his oozing blood in a bucket and gives it to a worker who looks like he is either a doctor or a scientist. Erin is introduced, and it seems the events happening in the blonde woman’s bunker are related to Erin. She has nightmares (or premonitions), and she is jolted out of her sleep. Adam is introduced as her boyfriend, and it seems he is taking her to finally meet his parents. Although Erin doesn’t seem too excited about it, she agrees to go, but after revealing that his brother and his girlfriend are all going to be there, Erin again starts to feel uncomfortable, although she hides her emotions well thanks to the pills she takes. It isn’t clear what they are for exactly, but they do help Erin function normally. Adam and Erin had a stoppage for a night out in the forest where they would get to spend time with each other while camping. A woman seems to be lying unconscious on the road. Erin didn’t know it yet, but both her and the woman’s life was in danger.
Who was the woman? Why was she lying on the road?
Erin stepped out of the car, and Adam asked her to go check up on her. A bit strange considering he didn’t go himself and left her alone to go check whether the woman was alive or dead. The woman startled Erin by suddenly waking up, and Erin didn’t take it too well. She punched her in the face, and when a man grabbed her from behind to stop her, Erin started attacking him as well. Erin was furious and calmed down only when Adam revealed that the man who tried to stop her was his brother Michael, and the woman who was bleeding from the nose because of Erin’s punch was Sarah, Michael’s girlfriend. Michael had set up this prank, which obviously didn’t go down too well. He had planned to surprise his brother in the forest but got surprised himself when Erin went berserk on him and Sarah. Adam couldn’t understand the bizarre rage, which is why he went up and asked Erin to explain what was going on with her. She didn’t, of course, because they hadn’t been in a relationship for long enough that she would feel comfortable divulging the secret behind her rage.
What had happened to Erin?
Erin’s past is as traumatic as they come. She had changed her name because, had Adam known her original name, he would have found out about her past. Her original name was Erin Bradley. While camping, Erin apologized to Sarah about hitting her, and Sarah was the only one who seemed to recognize her from the papers. Erin Bradley had been in the news long ago as the woman who had been kidnapped as a child and tortured in captivity for 15 years by violent and depraved men. Adam had invited Erin to meet his family not knowing of her violent past, and it turned out to be a fatal mistake, both for him and his family.
‘I Am Rage’ Ending Explained: Why Did Margaret Die?
Erin was in deep trouble but soon it would be Adam’s family who would have to run for cover. Adam and his family were part of a cult that traded in human blood. They had killers hired in the guise of servants, so they must have thought they were safe from Erin’s fury. Adam was a wicked fellow who had essentially brought Erin to be slaughtered, but the tables were soon going to be turned. Adam’s sister was the most savage of them all. She liked to feast on the victim’s blood, and she was the one who was shown collecting a man’s blood in a bucket in the beginning. Before Margaret arrived, Adam and his family set up a dinner and drugged Erin and Sarah. The plan was to extract part of their skin and present it to a potential buyer, Mr. Wilson, who was busy shooting other abducted people as part of his hunting practice.
When Erin regained consciousness, she found herself tied to a chair while Michael was torturing Sarah. Erin didn’t have her medication, which was essential to keeping her blood pressure under control. As soon as he saw what was happening, her blood pressure shot up, and she was filled with rage. She gave Adam a last chance to let her go, but he didn’t listen. He should have paid attention to Erin’s warning, as she was simmering with unimaginable rage, which gave her superhuman strength. As soon as Michael left, Erin broke out of her bondage using sheer force and beat Adam to a pulp. She encountered Michael on her way out and killed him. Margaret finally arrived, and the family went on to meet Mr. Wilson for the trade. Erin rescued Sarah as well, and it looked like she would get away, but Margaret managed to overpower Erin, and her end seemed near. Margaret, who was a fiend for human blood, extracted Erin’s blood sample and tried to drink some of it herself, but the doctor stopped her as he instructed her that Erin’s blood had a freakishly high amount of adrenaline flowing through her system. Drinking it could be fatal, even for Margaret. Erin got a chance to survive when Mr. Wilson asked Margaret to let her and Sarah run around in the forest while he tried to hunt them. He wanted the thrill of hunting his trade before he killed them and drank their blood.
Letting Erin go free proved to be a mistake, as she started to kill the members of Adam’s family one by one. Sarah helped Erin distract them, and soon only Adam and Margaret remained alive. Adam came back for his revenge but eventually got killed, and Margaret shot Sarah. Erin just had to kill one more person to get away, and it was Margaret. They started to fight, and Margaret was no dud at taking down a person with her bare hands. But she committed a mistake. When she was getting overpowered by Erin, she bit her in order to get her off of herself. As the doctor had warned earlier, Erin’s blood had extremely high amounts of adrenaline, and now the blood had entered Margaret’s bloodstream. She couldn’t manage it, and her organs burst, and she died on the spot. Erin had lived with such a horrific hormonal condition throughout her childhood, which is why when she escaped, she brutally murdered her kidnappers.
During I am Rage‘s ending, Erin failed to save Sarah but she was able to escape herself, leaving behind a trail of dead bodies and putting an end to the death cult. The pills, which had been part of her life ever since she escaped in her teens, were now no longer necessary, as she now knew how to channel her anger. The pills were crutches she didn’t need now. She had superhuman powers and after overcoming her dependence on the pills, she realized that those powers were now under her voluntary control.
