Many of us with a few decades under our belts remember a time when there were only three or four networks on television. Now there are hundreds of networks on cable so the push to target as broad an audience as possible are for the most part gone. Cable networks are now geared towards niche programming. One of the newer networks of this type is the ‘Oxygen Network. Like its sister network ‘Lifetime’ it presents itself as the network for women run by women. It has followed the usual course for a new network. First the started out with female oriented re-run television series like ‘Roseanne’ and ‘Ellen’. Then they moved on to original series and finally on to producing their own films. One of the first such movies was ‘Banshee’, now available on DVD through Image Entertainment. This is not what many would call a ‘Chick flick’ but instead moves the network into films about crime, danger and thrills. Oxygen is attempting to get the younger female demographic with out of the box think as to what they want to see. It may come as a surprise for many men out there but women can and do enjoy a thriller or action flick. My wife would much rather watch a ‘Die Hard’ movie’ than anything with ‘green tomatoes’, ‘traveling pants’ or ‘sisterhood’ in the title. She is not alone and it is about time the ladies are treated to a film geared towards them with some action in it. This is the twenty first century and they have come a long way baby. This is not the greatest flick around but it is solid in its genre and entertaining. Even the guys will be able to sit and watch with their better halves.

The film was written by Kirsten Elms. This is her first time with a feature length film but she did write a short horror film previously. The script has imagination and style but does fall short of its potential. As an initial opus it is more than reasonable. Some of the dialogue is stinted and comes across as forced but experience should help Ms Elms on that score. The basic plot has been used in one variation or another for a long time but here there is a fresh approach that is engaging. A young woman who tends to live on the edge steals a car. Now there is nothing unusual in that except the car belongs too a serial killer. He is deadly serious about getting his ride back. You know how guys get with their cars. Even if he wasn’t a serial killer with potential evidence in the car it was a cherry condition '66 Dodge Charger. Any guy would go ballistic to get his muscle car back. At one point he demonstrates to the young woman just how determined he is by sending her a little piece of her boyfriend; his ear. It is not as if men listen to their wives and girlfriends anyway but she gets the point.

Directing this movie is Kari Skogland who has a resume that is both impressive and eclectic. She has done her time with television series from ‘The L Word’ to ‘Queer as Folk’ and just for good measure ‘La Femme Nikita’ and the TV version of ‘The Crow’. In the arena of films she has helmed a diverse group that includes ‘Riverworld’, ‘Zebra Lounge’ and ‘White Lies’. This gives her range that can handle science fiction to modern politics and sexual ethics. With such a background and after enjoying so many of her previous directorial works this film does represent an off day for Ms Skogland. She has done much better in other films that I was surprised to see some of the techniques she employed here. The camera work was inconsistent and lacked her usual moody style that made her other films, particularly, ‘White Lies’ so great. She is better suited for dark emotional conflict that action. This is not intended as a derogatory remark just that Skogland experimented outside her usual venue and the results were not up to her usual high standards. There was an attempt at a car chase scene and that is a difficult stunt for a director to pull off. There are several such scenes in films like ‘The French Connection’ and ‘Bullitt’ that the bar for this effect is set incredibly high. There was also a lack of grit with the location that had the tendency to take the audience out of the moment.

The film opens on Sage (Taryn Manning) better know to most as the Banshee since she is impossible to catch. She is proud of the fact that she is one of the best cars thieves around and as she will state a bit later does it because she is so good at it. The first view the audience gets of her is walking up to a car stealing it with a few simple moments. She meets up with her boyfriend Tony Romano (Morgan Kelly). Their relationship seems based on a competition for dominance and it would appear that Sage usual gets things her way. Over diner they argue as to which of them is the better car thief, ah young love. Outside the diner is a rookie detective, Oliver Fitzgerald (Mike Lombardi) with his cynical older partner. They have been after Tony for awhile now and know that he works for Mitch Romano (Tony Calabretta) the owner of a busy chop shop. He describes Tony as good and the girl as even better. It turns out that on a nightly run for a car to steal Sage comes across a muscle car that she knows will bring a premium price at the chop shop. Unfortunately, it just so happens that the car belongs to Larch (Christian Campbell) a very active serial killer. He ostensibly works at night as a DJ for local raves and manages to combine his two passions, music and murder. He records the screams and pounding heart beats of his victims and then mixes them into the techno music he plays at the clubs. He wants his car back and to make sure it gets it kidnappes Tony, to force sage to give it back. He them frames her for a murder so the police start to chase her.

What does go a long way to helping this film over its flaws is the cast. In particular Manning is very good as the bad girl of the flick. She exudes the right amount of attitude to pull off her role as Sage. She has been very active on the Indy circuit for some time now and just hasn’t gotten the right project to move over to more mainstream films yet. Campbell plays his character just short of going over the top. He works well as the crazed psycho killer but falls just a little short of selling his part.

You can always count of Image Entertainment for a film that is off the beaten track. This one is flawed but still provides enough entertainment value to make it worth watching.