The summer movie season ends on a ludicrously violent note with the revenge film Death Sentence. A brutal essay in vigilantism is not out of place this time of year, but this one also sets the stage -- and a low bar -- for some blood-soaked films soon to be released.

Next week's Western 3:10 to Yuma and pulpy action-comedy Shoot 'Em Up have high body counts, and on September 14th Jodie Foster's New Yorker satisfies her need for vengeance in another vigilante thriller The Brave One.

Here, Kevin Bacon plays Nick Hume a family man living in the suburbs of an unnamed metropolis that has the nondescript look of a Canadian locale. Stopping for gas in the wrong part of town, he watches as his teenage son -- the oldest of two and a golden boy, naturally -- is felled by an inner-city gang member during an initiation rite.

Employed to assess risk at a financial firm, Nick craves order and sees the world through actuarial glasses. His instinct is to play it safe and hedge. Of course that conservative approach doesn't work in this nightmare situation. There's no bulwark against random acts of violence or any easy way to make things right, especially when the justice system is stacked against you.  

The perp is caught and Nick picks him out of a line-up. But the district attorney chooses a tact that makes him partly responsible for the mayhem that follows. During the arraignment, Nick decides in an instant to balance the equation on his own.

His first act toward that end can be considered crime of passion and triggers a tit-for-tat cycle of violence with the gang led by Billy (Garrett Hedlund). (Given all the markings on these low-lifes, there must have been a separate line item in the movie's budget for tattoo ink.) After a long chase in a downtown parking structure, Nick's wife (Kelly Preston) and second son are targeted.

In truth, the movie doesn't become egregious until the third act when Nick snaps. A wounded, coal-eyed animal with a shaved and bandaged head, he embarks on a rampage looking like a cross between a Civil War casualty, Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver and a latter-day Frankenstein monster. After buying high-powered firearms from a crime boss (John Goodman) with an intimate connection to his ordeal, he reads all the gun manuals before his killing spree begins. That's a first. 

Director James Wan (Saw) handles the bloodbath with a certain aplomb that runs counter to the de-saturated cinematography and Bacon’s gaunt face, both of which underscore the morally gray position taken by the screenplay based on Brian Garfield’s novel.

As senseless as the acts it depicts, Death Sentence raises the perennial question: With all the real-life threats to security and happiness, why would anyone want to watch this? The best that can be said is that it doesn't try to be too deep or arty; the catharsis it gropes for isn't meant to be emotionally or intellectually enlightening, boilerplate concerning father-son bonds and paternal influences notwithstanding.

The idea appears to be that we're all potential sociopaths. Point taken. But Kevin Bacon on the warpath isn't a pretty sight. It's best to picture him shaking his stuff in Footloose or even portraying a child molester in 2004's The Woodsman.

Bad things certainly do happen in the real world. Death Sentence is just the latest example.

(Released by Twentieth Century Fox and rated "R" for strong brutal bloody violence and pervasive language.).