Monica Jade, the deputy who is captured by her fellow officers after reporting one of them is beautiful, with a beautiful, natural body and (thank god) a lovely bush. She channels early Lisa Kinkaid and Kelly McKay with their great girl-next-door (if you live in Paradise) looks and the energy she puts into her role. The two bad (?) guys (Chad Mahoney and Russell Grand) are a massive improvement from Rick's last two films and much less campy than in most of his earlier films. This gives a greater sense of reality that there has been in a lot of the ZFX oeuvre. The film doesn't keep breaking the illusion with weird camera stuff and bad lighting. It is straightforward and clear.

The rapes are simulated, but there is no need for obviously fake cocks dropping with yogurt for us to get the illusion clearly, and Monica sells her scenes.

In the first 25 minutes, after a decent and efficient set-up, she gets slapped, punched, gagged, stripped, spanked choked and raped front and back. She is ball-gagged, cleave-gagged, cock-gagged and gagged with cloth tied around her head. Then Rick takes a few minutes to explore and show off her wonderful body, before revealing her fully-nude in a standing spread eagle.

After a bit of diddling, one of her ex-comrades pulls out the shock-gun for almost 8 minutes of electro-torture. Those lovely natural breasts, her belly and pussy are shocked over and over. Here again Masters lets his actors do the work and just records. Finally, at the end of the scene we see her sweating. Next she is raped with a baton, during which she is shocked again.

Still not finished, the guy uses a taser firing darts into her nipples and shocking her.

This is one of the best electro scenes ever, but it does eventually get repetitive and long.

Eventually she is hung in horizontal suspension for whipping with a flogger. This is no Jac Avila whipping. Monica takes a strong beating and the marking of her body may not be real, but it sure looks it. Again it goes on for about 7 minutes.

Front and back, belly, breasts and pussy, back and butt are all covered. Again, this is as good as it gets in this kind of film.

The final scene is a bit of a letdown with clothespins on nipples and pussy lips, and a dildo shoved into her until she comes and is asphyxiated with a plastic bag.

Or is she?

Duty Bound is Masters at the top of his game, a mature filmmaker with great performers in front of his camera. He knows all the angles and the lighting tricks but he uses them with control instead of dancing around showing off. There's nothing really new here - what else can you do with shocking and whipping? - but what is done is done really well. The film runs about 70 minutes, and I would like to have seen perhaps 10 trimmed out. I never fast-forwarded, but I thought about it toward the end of the electro and whipping scenes - and that's blasphemy for me, who loves those two tortures.

Monica is a true superstar. She brings a full package of looks, body, physical and vocal responses and stamina - plus her reasonable acting performance in the beginning of the film. For those who need a story, it's there - not War and Peace, but very competent and brief enough. The villains rarely if ever get in the way, and they do their job - especially Grand - effectively.