Mia (Coel Mahal) is a badass who has been through hell. As a young girl, she watched as her family was brutally murdered before her. At the beginning of the visceral new thriller Restitution, a car pulls up to a remote vehicle. The shadowy driver, (spoiler, it’s Mia) pulls her live cargo, Darren (Jonathan Shores), from the trunk and forces him at gunpoint from the car to the house. Once Darren is secured, we learn that Mia believes that Darren is the monster behind her family’s death so many years ago. Her plan is torture, slow and painful as a way to make things right. Of course, things don’t go as planned and we are in for some bloody mayhem. Written by Mark Allen and capably directed by Danny Draven, we are treated to an intimate, tactile story of revenge.

Mia stands before her prey who is bound to a chair. She rolls out a medical tray of destructive tools to force an in-person confession from Darren for murdering her family but Darren insists she has the wrong guy. There is a fun stretch of the movie where that mystery lingers that is far too short. The penny drops and we get our answer. Then the real debate begins. Are monsters made or born? Between acts of violence Mia argues that evil is cultivated through circumstance. Darren asserts that sometimes people are just born bad. It’s at about this point that writer Mark Allen seems to spend a bit too much time debating the matter. Thankfully, Allen and director Danny Draven know that while the debate is a worthy one, we are here for the action. More importantly the gore. Restitution doesn’t disappoint.

Sheriff Rathbone (James Black) rolls in at a certain point to check on Mia, creating a few scenes of tension as she hides her victim. Too her ex Jason (Chris Gann) rolls in as well only to complicate matters. All of the needed plot points and twists are a framework to feature the impressive stunt work and hand to hand fighting between the leads. There is some brutal work on display here that left me impressed.

Restitution does succumb to conventional tropes. But that’s not before entertaining us with a slam-bang revenge thriller with a lean cast. Mahal is a firey force as Mia. In search of the titular Restitution she is relentless, taking on a man twice her size. Shores is great as the probably evil Darren. He rises to the acting assignment then provides his obvious penchant for physical acting and fight scenes. Props must also go to Suzi Hale‘s practical, wince-inducing effects.

Restitution knows exactly what it is and leans hard into it delivering brutal, bloody fun with a lean runtime.