Replicant (2001)

imdb.com rating: 5.3/10

arrow in the head rating: 7/10

my personal rating: 5/10

A calculated serial killer is on a murder spree in metropolitan Seattle, preying on mothers. The victim total is at 11 and law enforcement agencies are on the search for Torch/Luke Savard (Van Damme). A National Security Agency unit recruits a city detective familiar with the homicide case and the antagonist, Detective Jake Riley (Rooker). Laboratory Scientists create the perfect genetic clone/replicant (Van Damme) of Torch researching DNA recovered from crime scenes. Detective Riley and the clone track Torch to stop the murder spree. In the opening scene, Torch commits a murder and burns the woman in front of her baby in a flat. The beginning sets the tone for what is dark, gritty film. I liked the vibrant clone cocoon I really did. For the clone's transformation and learning process the director (Ringo Lam) and writers went out of their way to express it. When the clone is first out of the laboratory environment and in the real world it abruptly cuts to a empty warehouse scene. Now the clone is an expert gymnast swinging from ceiling pipes in a warehouse. In my opinion the sequence could of been edited better or left out, it comes off as rather silly and tedious. Another part of the film I just couldn't get into is how the clone can read the mind of Torch, come on now.

I believe the acting was fine for a direct to video release. Rooker is loud and boisterous as he usually is. Van Damme gives it his all here as both Torch and the clone. The way he portrays Torch as a sadistic, psychological killer is quality enough for a standalone film, without a clone. "You're a bad mother" is a line Torch likes to say to his victims. The backstory to why Torch ends a deranged serial killer is from a traumatic childhood upbringing. He was wrongly abused by his own mother as a kid. Torch feels it is necessary to visit her at an adult age and she becomes a victim of his killing spree. The film is sci-fi/action, however there's splashes of violence. We get to see a woman murdered & burned in flat; a silhouette of a woman murdered & burned in a bathroom; a glass window slammed on a man's head; a murdered man's body in a family room; hot grease pressed on a woman's face. In a nutshell I rate it as a so-so film and not too memorable.