Common Sense Media Review
By Brian Costello
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
So-so tale about timely topic has violence, drugs, alcohol.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
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Trafficked: A Parent's Worst Nightmare
What's the Story?
In Trafficked: A Parent's Worst Nightmare, Allison (Sophie Bolen) is a popular teen girl who loves riding horses and lives in the Detroit suburbs. In recent days, she has been chatting online with "Tyler," a boy rumored by her friends and younger sister to be her new boyfriend. On the eve of her 16th birthday, Allison sneaks out of the house to go on a date with Tyler, who takes her to an empty parking lot, where she's then abducted by three men who take her to a basement, where she's forced to live in a cage with other teen girls. When Allison doesn't turn up at school the next day, her friends are concerned, and when she doesn't even show up for her birthday party, her parents Case and Joanna (Kristy Swanson) are deeply worried. Meanwhile, Allison is being sent to work as a sex worker for a man who goes by "Daddy," sent to a seedy motel room where men pay and line up to have sex with her. When the police say they're unable to do anything for 48 hours, Case and Joanna decide to call a friend of Case's named John Belton (Dean Cain), a former Marine who runs a high-end and heavily armed private investigation firm. Belton agrees to immediately take on the case, but his work doesn't come cheap. Desperate, Case and Joanna agree to hire Belton, with Allison's grandmother footing the bill by tapping into the college fund she had set aside for Allison. As the days and weeks go by, Allison is sent to bachelor parties and "dates" with wealthy older men, John and his ragtag crew are unable to find any leads, and Joanna and Case's marriage is in dire straits as Joanna tries to numb her pain with wine and Case now walks around with a gun strapped to his hip and has also turned to drink. After a month, it seems that all hope is lost, and as they learn of Belton's ugly past, Case and Joanna think they've been ripped off -- but one last tip suggests that maybe there's still hope to find Allison. As the clock ticks, Belton and his crew must find Allison before it's too late.
Is It Any Good?
This is a movie about an important topic, but unfortunately it's just a mediocre film. While the statistics presented at the end of the movie are stark and horrible -- in the United States, 700,000 to 900,000 women and girls are being sex trafficked, generating $30 billion annually -- the movie is marred by corny attempts at "teen" dialogue, an overreliance on montages filled with sad singer-songwriter balladry, and the kinds of tropes seen in any Hollywood vigilante movie dating back to the 1970s, if not the 1950s. There's one very good scene in which community activists led by a minister accomplish more in one night than the $20,000-per-week ragtag group of private investigators led by Dean Cain's character accomplish in a month, but the violence and vigilantism held up in the rest of the movie turn the saying "It takes a village ... " into "It takes a village, a pricey private investigation firm led by an ex-Marine, an arsenal of assault weaponry, and a father whose masculinity is on the line."
There are some other problematic elements to this movie. The three main bad guys are Black men from the inner city, and the abducted teen is a White girl from the suburbs. While the man who lures the teen girl is White, and the men who pay to have sex with her are White, most of the screen time is centered on the Black men. While it's hopefully not intentional, this is a narrative rooted in racism dating back decades, if not centuries. There's literally one scene devoted to adding a third dimension to "Daddy," the meanest of the pimps who holds young Allison prisoner (spoiler alert: Daddy needs money to support his churchgoing grandmother), a scene that comes across as forced and in no way counterbalances all of Daddy's other disgusting actions. In spite of these problems, hopefully viewers will be moved to reflect on this crisis and think about potential solutions other than vigilante violence.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how sex trafficking was conveyed in the movie. What did you learn? How does the movie serve to highlight this problem?
Does the movie try to present ways in which we can end sex trafficking in this country, or is it more focused on telling the story of one family's traumatic experience?
How and why do you think violence and vigilantism were presented as the main solutions to this problem? What are some other possible solutions?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : January 26, 2021
- Cast : Dean Cain , Kristy Swanson , Sophie Bolen
- Director : Joel Paul Reisig
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Collide Distribution
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : School ( High School )
- Run time : 108 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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