Warning: Graphic content and spoilers. Read with care.

Walden is a 2023 movie about a court stenographer who thinks a brain tumor he’s been diagnosed with will kill him. He hears the worst things in court, and they affect him, but he seldom shows it, even in his expression. But that changes. He hears a case involving a father who stuffed his young daughter in his oven, and burned her alive.

Later, he hears from a detective who he’s friends with, Bill Kane (played by Shane West) that the father had been released on a technicality.

Walden Dean (Emile Hirsch) pays the father, Norman Bolt (Ben Bladen), a particularly foul sort both inside and out, a visit. Bolt had a new oven. Walden restrains Bolt with his head in the oven and turns it on. He hears later that the detectives, Kane and his partner, Detective Sally Hunt (Tania Raymonde), that Bolt was found with his head cooked. Walden perfectly acts like he’s grossed out, but it won’t be long before he strikes again.

After a trial where an abusive nurse has her case dismissed, she is visited by Walden, who restrains her to a hospital bed, gags her, and makes her nod to confess her crimes of murder and abuse. He’s also found the belt she used on the feet of patients, and he beats her to death with it.

Meanwhile, General George (a man who has the mental capacity of a ten year-old, played most ably by the amazing Luke Davis) is seen by the detectives giving a child a candy bar and inviting him to play video games at his house. The detectives follow them and arrest George, but the latest missing boy is found (how he’s found isn’t addressed) and General George looks guilty, but Walden sees the crime scene, and before Detective Hunt tells him to leave, shows him bagged evidence of a mysterious fabric cord.

Walden is close to a judge, Judge Boyle, played well by David Keith, who has aged like a fine whiskey: a deep but clear voice, a captivating smile and critically, he masterfully plays the part so well that we love him, and how he cares for Walden is touching. After Walden smashes a bottle of whiskey over an armed robber’s head, Boyle decides that Walden needs to carry.

Walden hears about Detective Hunt’s lover being hurt while they were taking a walk through the suburban Atlanta town park.

He knows what his moral duty is, stakes out the area, witnesses a similar attack, and shoots both perpetrators while receiving a stab wound.

Walden’s estranged father keeps a vigil in the hospital, with Walden in a coma. The surgery to remove the brain tumor is removed during this time.

Meanwhile, still in lockup, General George gets the news that Walden has been hurt. Being close friends with Walden makes him decide to tell the detectives something.

In their car, he leads them to an abandoned house. Detective Hunt handcuffs George to a pipe while she turns to search the house with Detective Kane. Before she does, George warns her, sadly, “you’ll never be the same.”

She smashes down a door, and they find bodies in various states of decomposition and she screams and cries.

George was told about the place by a friend. Kids were often “paid” to go there.

Walden sees Judge Boyle three weeks later, as he’s recuperating. As the judge leaves, Walden walks to his car with him. While looking over the antique, he notices a piece of fabric cord missing from the backseat. It looks just like the cord from the crime scene where a boy was found.

He visits the judge that night, and faces him across the judge’s desk. He brings his handgun up and tells the judge to keep his hands in sight.

Walden asks him what makes a man so badly want to rape and abuse children, then kill them.

The answer is chilling, and Keith plays this part with equally chilling acting.

He tells Walden he won’t need the gun. Later, the detectives are called to the house to find Boyle hanged himself.

We’ve seen this all before but this one stands out with a cast and screenplay that director Mick Davis has turned into what will be a cult masterpiece.

Death Wish, first starring Charles Bronson then Bruce Willis, is another vigilante/revenge flick we all know. I liked both versions but can’t watch the first scenes where their wives are killed.

Nobody did a very good job, a film written by the creator of John Wick, following some similar parts of the story, but a guest appearance by Christopher Lloyd set the whole thing off and made it a classic.

The Shocking Part

What is it, though, that makes revenge and vigilante movies appeal to us? Ironically, it is the very same reason that David Keith’s Judge Boyle kidnapped children and abused them.

Power, control, and the lack of it we feel every day, especially lately.

Rapists who target anyone of various ages feel that they need to have power and to use it. The targets are not selected based on clothing or almost any other factor; they just seem like targets of opportunity, easy marks.

Perhaps this is nowhere so true as with children. They can’t defend themselves against an adult. They’re almost always taken to different places to make the perp have the comfort of isolation and privacy. Quite often, the victim is killed, not because they can identify the predator, but because it is a final show of ultimate power.

Vigilantes in movies help us fantasize that we have power over those who harm others, and that we all could, if we so chose, punish them.

It works, too. Jasan Statham has made millions from his revenge films, and he remains popular.

But we know that we can’t really do those kinds of things, and we’re aware that if we did, we would be just as evil as the bad guys.

And whereas I can recommend Walden even after I’ve spoiled it, if only to see the cast in action, I have noticed that there are just too many of these movies out there. 1980’s The Exterminator with Robert Ginty had a rough start with horrible SFX in the Vietnam scenes, but the rest of it was gross and gritty and the bad guys, well, let’s just say, their exterminations satisfied.

There’s a big problem here. Hollywood is exploiting the themes of child abuse and vigilante justice.

It numbs us to the true horror of children being forced to do and endure things so horrible that you and I couldn’t stand knowing if adults went through it, which they do.

The whole world has been left very affected by Jeffrey Epstein. He was a true monster for the ages. His wallet dispensed cash all over the place and human beings paid in blood, pain and even death. And still we don’t know what is in those files. Every government, every activist group and religious institution around the world should be screaming for the files to be released. They have the right to know if monsters live among them.

Just as we do here in America. And every single person mentioned should be prosecuted.

That means Bill Gates, Donald Trump, all of them. Because if that doesn’t happen, we may have real vigilantes to deal with.

And I don’t want innocent people to get that desperate, to forfeit their lives to get the payback that our justice system won’t have anything to do with.