''The Flock'' is a 2007 American

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by

Andrew Lau Andrew Lau Wai-keung ( zh, t=劉偉強, born 4 April 1960) is a Hong Kong film director, producer, and cinematographer. Lau began his career in the 1980s and 1990s, serving as a cinematographer to filmmakers such as Ringo Lam, Wong Jing and Wo ...

, the co-director of the ''

Infernal Affairs ''Infernal Affairs'' is a 2002 Hong Kong action thriller film co-directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. Jointly written by Mak and Felix Chong, it stars Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Sammi Cheng and Kelly Chen. The film fo ...

'' trilogy. The film, which marks his first English-language film, stars

Richard Gere Richard Tiffany Gere ( ; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began in films in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in '' Looking for Mr. Goodbar'' (1977) and a starring role in ''Days of Heaven'' (1978). He came to prominence with ...

and

Claire Danes Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is an American actress. She is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2012, ''Time'' named her one of the 100 most influenti ...

Synopsis

A hyper-vigilant agent of the Department of Public Safety Erroll Babbage checks on registered sex offenders. Burnt out after a long career, he has become frustrated with the system of sex offender monitoring. With little faith in humanity left he takes on one last job to find a missing girl. He is three weeks away from taking early retirement and his final job is to train his young female replacement Allison Lowry. After being left a newspaper with his characteristic headline circling, he is convinced the case of kidnapping is connected to a

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

sex offender A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crim ...

he's monitoring and he takes it upon himself to find the victim at all costs. Errol is eventually forced to leave the department early due to his relentless interrogation of sexual offenders and occasional vigilante actions against them. His efforts center on Viola, a woman who has a history of being abused but is known to have a connection to another culprit that Errol suspects to have taken the girl. Together with his partner they figure out that Viola has become an abuser herself and is the ringleader in a kidnapping and torture syndicate. They track her down to a deserted scrap heap where they find the latest kidnapped girl as well as corpses of previous victims. The movie ends with Viola being brought to book after Errol considers killing her. Errol and Allison realize that in fighting the monsters involved in sexual offenses, they must not become monsters themselves.

Cast

as Agent Errol Babbage *

as Allison Lowry * Avril Lavigne as Beatrice Bell *

KaDee Strickland Katherine Dee Strickland (born December 14, 1975) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Charlotte King on the ABC drama '' Private Practice'' (2007–2013). Strickland began acting during high school. She studied acting in ...

as Viola * Paul McGowen as Det. Grant P. Stockdale *

Matt Schulze Matthew Steven Schulze (born July 3, 1972) is an American actor and musician. He is known for his role as Vince in ''The Fast and the Furious'' and ''Fast Five''. Early life Schulze was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He grew up in St. Louis an ...

as Custis * Carmen Serano as Colette * Kristina Sisco as Harriet Wells * Ray Wise as Robert Still *

French Stewart Milton French-Stewart IV (born February 20, 1964), known professionally as French Stewart, is an American actor, best known for playing Harry Solomon on the NBC sitcom ''3rd Rock from the Sun''. He also played Marv Murchins in ''Home Alone 4'', In ...

as Haynes Ownsby * Russell Sams as Edmund Grooms

Release

The film was released theatrically in several countries throughout the world in late 2007 and early 2008. In the United States it premiered April 11, 2008, at the

Palm Beach International Film Festival The Palm Beach International Film Festival is a film festival in the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America ...

, before being released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

on May 20, 2008, by

Genius Products Genius Products (also known as Genius Entertainment) was an entertainment company based in Santa Monica, California, United States. The ''Baby Genius'' line was one of a number of "smart toys" that came out in response to a study book about the ...

.The Flock – Company credits

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

. Retrieved August 21, 2008.

References

External links

* * * *
''The Flock''
at The Numbers {{DEFAULTSORT:Flock, The 2007 films 2007 direct-to-video films 2007 independent films Films set in New Mexico Films shot in New Mexico American vigilante films American independent films Films directed by Andrew Lau Films produced by Elie Samaha 2000s English-language films 2000s American films