This gritty thriller from director Will Canon surprises from start to finish- but not in a good way. When a frat boy pledge task results in one of the recruits being shot, Frank (Foster) decides to take matters into his own hands rather than going to the police; a decision that escalates through the film as their situation gets worse and worse. And then worse. Again.

Dutiful friend Adam (Morgan) tries his upmost to sort the situation by occasionally whining and looking pleading, and emerges at the end of the film as the pseudo hero- look kids, see what happens if you stand up to your peers! Except he takes seventy odd minutes to stand up to Frank, eventually phoning the police when no one is left in the room to stop him. Not really what heroes are made of, is it?

Where this film excels is in its gritty portrayal of the underbelly of American Frat houses, from drunken stunts to the ideals of sticking by your brothers. Brotherhood really sells the story of Frank battling against the odds in a somewhat naïve way to clear his name- but where it falls down is in the overly complex and completely ludicrous plot.

The original shooting is believable and well shot (no pun intended) but after that, do we really believe that the petrol store worker can be accidently kidnapped, tortured, then conveniently happens to have stolen money on him by which the main protagonists can clear their names? Oh and that there is a car crash outside the frat house which injures a doctor on his way to save the day. And the cop who turns a blind eye to the half dead guy on the coach because he happens to be an ex-frat boy himself. And did we mention the girls who try and set fire to the lawn?

You almost feel sorry for Frank, after all he is having one hell of a night. Sadly though, with underdeveloped characters- one of whom is so wet and weedy you want to climb through the screen and inject him with some testosterone- and most of them also being immensely unlikable, Brotherhood remains a film unlikely to become anything more than a gritty cult movie for the minorities who like their lighting dark, their violence explicit and their frat boys stupid. Told you it got worse.