Somewhere between squalid exploitation movies and Tarantino brashness, “Raze” is lurking, waiting to slug you in the face.

In this assaultive film by Josh C. Waller, women are kidnapped, imprisoned and forced to fight to the death with their bare hands, one on one, in the ultimate single-elimination tournament. Why? As part of some kind of ancient ritual that they are told little about. All they really need to know is that if they refuse to fight, or lose, someone they love in the outside world – a child, their parents – will be killed.

And these are no mere catfights. Punches are exchanged, limbs broken, blood spilled. Before the film’s title is even displayed, Sabrina (Zoë Bell, best known early in her career as a stuntwoman) and Jamie (Rachel Nichols of Syfy’s “Continuum”) have engaged in a savage battle that is all the more terrifying because Jamie has only just arrived at the dungeonlike hellhole and has no idea why Sabrina is attacking her.

But don’t write off this gruesome work as a variation on a women-in-chains B movie. There’s considerably more thought behind it, with each woman having a bit of back story and, more important, her own way of reacting to the impossible choice she faces. Bell is the main focus, but the cast includes Tracie Thoms, Rebecca Marshall, Adrienne Wilkinson, Allene Quincy and Bailey Anne Borders.

If you can stand to watch this movie – a big if – there is food for thought here about the subjugation and exploitation of women, the limits of psychological and physical endurance, and more.