Arcadian: A Good Idea That Leaves Us With Too Many Questions.

Arcadian is one of Nicholas Cage’s new films, about a father and two sons who are living in a post apocalyptic era, where monsters roam free during the night. Directed by Benjamin Brewer, this film focuses on the survivors of a war of sorts from 15 years ago, where much of the population was wiped out for unclear reasons.

just a creature feature?

The film takes place in rural America, though I could tell it was actually filmed in the UK, where Paul (Nicholas Cage) is a single dad of two teenage boys, Joseph (Jaeden Martell) and Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins).

Paul has taught both of his sons how to live within the constraints of a broken down system, where killer monsters come out every night in search of humans. There isn’t a lot of information given in the story about when, where or why these creatures came to be, nor how they arrived.

Other than the creatures, the area they live is relatively safe, but very sparsely populated and supplies aren’t very plentiful. Joseph is the quiet, brainy son, while Thomas is the more outgoing one, doing what he can to help a family close by, because their daughter Charlotte (Sadie Soverall) has caught his eye.

Thomas tends to run back and forth to their house on a daily basis and has, at times, been late for the evening curfew. One night, while running back home, Thomas falls into a fissure in the ground that he is usually able to jump.

As dark closes in, Paul is forced to leave Joseph to go out and find Thomas. When Paul gets seriously wounded rescuing Thomas, the kids have to band together to figure things out and learn how to keep him safe and survive without his help.

RLJE Films

in all honesty…

Arcadian, though full of creative creatures and action, sorely lacks too much information and script development to be considered well rounded.

I was very impressed with the creative creatures that looked like a mash up of a sloth, dinosaur and werewolf. With their sped up chompy chomps and rolly rolls, they add excellent tension and jump scares that are likely to hit well with audiences.

The film quality is also well done, but the lighting overall was much too dark. It was difficult for me to see much of the early creature activity, or grasp what they looked like due to so many scenes that were poorly lit. I wasn’t always sure what I was looking at.

Jaeden Martell, the sweetheart of the most recent It films, continues to wow with his acting that is so incredibly focused and intuitive. He hardly had a chance to expound on his talents though with the script that was so lacking.

There simply wasn’t enough time or development put into this script. There were so many questions left unanswered, such as what made the world desolate to begin with; where the creatures came from or how; why they only eat humans; how Paul and his family survived and found decent housing within the parameters of the disaster; what happened to mom and the general sense of who each character is individually.

Instead, everything just “is” and I think that choice cheated us out of so much that it simply couldn’t suspend our disbelief in the world to be fully immersive, which was so disappointing.

RLJE Films

For a disaster film to really work, it requires time, space, highly necessary and developed characters, and a sense of urgency to be absorbed into the world. There weren’t any high stakes in the film other than survival and no relief to be had in the end.

The ending itself was very abrupt and wholly incomplete. It was as if Brewer just wanted to focus on creatures only, which left a lot to be desired. The failures in the script become failures of character, story, plot, a ticking clock, general direction and a point.

What was it that Brewer wanted to tell us? Why was this particular story something that he thought was necessary to be seen?

Though I’m sure that audiences may like the tension, creatures and excitement they cause, the rest of it is just one big enigma that left me completely unsatisfied.

Dark Harvest: Not Your Run of the Mill Horror

It’s that time of year again! As fall settles in, the yearly trove of spooky, horrifying and strange films cascade around us. Much of the streaming content is generally lower budget, low quality, poorly acted and written, bottom of the barrel films that leave you wondering “how did this get made?”.

But Dark Harvest, directed by David Slade, challenges the status quo on what can be done with a lower budget. Perhaps not the best horror ever made, but has plenty that stands out as truly unique and turns the tables on the boring cliche horror tropes .

The yearly cull

Set in the early 1960’s in a rural, mostly white, midwestern town, the story centers around the town’s yearly “tradition” on Halloween. The town has a “curse” on it and a creature known as Sawtooth Jack (Dustin Ceithamer), roams the cornfields and town, mercilessly killing off the teenage boys that are sent out to stop him from getting to the church by midnight.

The town treats it as a yearly game of sorts, where the one who kills Jack gets 25,000 dollars, a new Corvette and is the new hero of the town for saving all of their lives. The film only mentions the reasoning behind this tradition, is to save the town and crops from a dark plague of sorts that, long ago, destroyed everything.

Last years champion, Jim Shepard (Britain Dalton), big brother to Richie Shepard (Casey Likes), won the money for his family, and took off in his slick car to start a new life elsewhere. Richie gets occasional letters from him but is plagued with feeling “second best”, because he feels he has not lived up to Jim’s achievements.

MGM

This year, Richie is determined to not only win the competition, but also stop the curse from happening for good, to prove that he is also worthy and capable of being a hero. He also questions the odd life that he and his family are living and wants to break free from all of it.

When he meets the lovely Kelly (Emyri Crutchfield), seemingly the only African American in the white, racist town, and falls for her, his plan of escape becomes unavoidable if he is to get the money and freedom he needs to pursue a life with her.

As the evening progresses, Richie learns more and more about the insidious “curse” and the horror that encompasses Sawtooth’s annual return. Will Richie and his friends survive the night, putting a permanent end to the grisly “tradition” in this town, or are they all doomed to relive it to the town’s demise?

in all honesty…

MGM

Dark Harvest is an unexpectedly entertaining and enthralling horror, that continues to hold your attention even through its weaker points.

Given the fact that this is an early 1960’s white male film, the overall execution of it was quite surprising. Those of us who are old enough to remember the countless films that take place in the 50’s and 60’s about white boys or men from the 1970’s on, know that this particular subject has been DONE in just about every way possible.

This film isn’t unique in that sense, but the twist of the story and the brilliant filming, color, lighting and special effects sets it apart from average films of this sort. I’ve watched films of all kinds for decades and found that the stylized way Dark Harvest was filmed added a layer of intrigue that I couldn’t dismiss.

The story itself isn’t outstanding or unparalleled, but it does end with an fascinating twist that made me wonder about a myriad of potential metaphors it could represent. The message behind the film, if there was one, alluded me, but I enjoyed toying with the possibilities.

Emyri Crutchfield’s performance was absolutely captivating. She played a Kelly that is a precocious, charming, intelligent and welcome addition to the paper white, mostly male cast. I hope to see her in many films to come.

MGM

Sawtooth Jack himself was nothing unprecedented, but I appreciated that he was made with more practical effects instead of CGI, and, had a couple impressive surprises up his sleeve. The scene of him burning down a building was nothing short of spectacular. As a lover of Halloween it was absolutely thrilling and fun.

If you’re looking for a little Halloween lore and gore this film won’t disappoint. It was so refreshing to finally see one of the lower budget, horror streamers exceed the usual, abominable expectations. The artistry, eye for unique shots and love put into this was happily received.

Have some fun this season and Happy Haunting!

Evil Dead Rise: Where Everything "Just Happens to Be"

*MILD SPOILERS*

I went into this film excited to see it due to all of its good reviews. I knew it wouldn’t be like the originals nor as funny without Ash, but since good horror films are needles in a haystack from the gargantuan amount of subpar content being churned out, I was ready for a good thrill.

My critic colleagues failed me and audiences everywhere with their glowing reviews of something that, barring the FX, was a lazy reproduction of borrowed horror nostalgia, that beats the already dead horse, into atoms.

Cue the gratuitous blood!

It Begins…again

The story begins with a flash forward and the usual white young people on a remote cabin trip. We don’t know how at the time, but one of the women has been infected with Evil Dead energy and begins the slaughter of her friends.

Flashing back, single mother Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and her three children are eking out an existence in a mostly abandoned, run down apartment complex that apparently was (just happens to be) built over an old bank.

Ellie’s sister Beth (Lilly Sullivan) makes a return to see her sister and nieces and nephew, after a long absence being on the road with concerts. We come to find that Ellie and Beth’s relationship has been strained by Beth’s past unwillingness to stay in touch.

Source: Warner Brothers

An earthquake strikes while the kids are alone in the parking lot, which just happens to leave a walkthrough hole right above the bank vault where, for some reason, the Book of the Dead is being stored. Danny (Morgan Davies) the middle sibling, explores the old vault and finds some old LP records, along with the book.

Since Danny just happens to be an aspiring DJ, he just happens to have the turntables to listen to these LP’s, which of course, is generally rare in most homes now. He also happens to have the right equipment to format the LP’s sound into perfectly clear language, that ends up waking up The Book.

The evil energy attacks the unaware Ellie in their rickety elevator and the chaos begins…again.

In all honesty…

Hats off to the FX/makeup crews. Their work was by far the best part of this show. Sutherland looked and performed amazingly, and was seriously creepy. I just wish they would’ve given her a way better story to act with.

The lack of story and the absolutely ludicrous “just happens to be” party ruined the rest of it. Everything and everyone was set up to make everything work just exactly how the filmmakers wanted it, in utterly boring, too easy, uncreative ways. That’s lazy screenwriting.

For one, how would Danny have this incredible sound system complete with speakers if the family was so poor they had to live in a building that was going to be demolished in a month?

Source: Warner Brothers

And what happens when the sound system breaks but they need to listen to another record? Low and behold, Aunty Beth is a sound engineer who happens to know how to fix it. Hooray!

At a different part, demonic Ellie gets shut out of the apartment. After hours of looking for ways in, a random cat shows up in the ventilation system, then giving her an “a-ha” moment.

Just after, the youngest child Kassie (Nell Fisher), who was also fantastic, mentions that the super’s cat goes up there every now and then. Really? When the hell would that ever happen except within a script with lazy writing? They set a cat up in the ventilators simply as a means to remind demon Ellie how to infiltrate the apartment.

Also, if Ellie was possessed by smaller amounts of the Evil Dead blood in the elevator, why weren’t Beth and Kassie when they were practically drowned in it?

The “just happens” and convenient plot points/holes continue to occur over and over again, setting up characters and story arcs with inexcusably weak, easy ways to push the already struggling story forward. I bet there are student screenwriters who could write scripts with more heart and creativity, but professionals, not just the writers, aren’t held to the same standards, and continue pumping out garbage with the greatest of glee.

On top of that, plenty of scenes are just “borrowed” from other horror movies. Whether or not it was meant as an homage, I don’t want to spend good money on old stuff I can stream practically free at home.

Did anyone above the line, barring the actors, have to do any real thinking or creating? Clearly not with the script, nor the many borrowed scenes.

My advice? Skip it. You’ve already seen all of this in other, better films.

If you want to see the good FX/makeup, save the big bucks and wait to stream it. There are great apps you can get for an entire month for less than one movie ticket, and see way higher quality content all around.

The viewers are the ones who tell the industry what we want to see with our money. We don’t have to settle for garbage anymore.

To Catch A Killer: Some Wonderful Shots and Action, Not Enough Story

**CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS

I was excited to see this, as Shailene Woodley is always a consistently wonderful actor. With a very exciting opening, filled with surprisingly unique and noteworthy camera angles, I had hope that I was in for a thrilling ride. Disappointingly, as with most films I see nowadays, the story was sorely lacking.

And so it begins

Set in Baltimore starting on New Years Eve, the city is sieged in terror by a mass shooter. This time, the shooter is ranger style and randomly picks off 29 people from his posted point. Officer Eleanor Falco (Shailene Woodley) young and without much experience, is on shift with, what will become, the most important case of her life so far.

Falco answers the call only to witness a massive explosion, in a high-rise apartment where the killer had once posted. In the smoke filled apartment, Falco catches the attention of the FBI agent, Geoffrey Lammarck (Ben Mendelsohn), who is taking over the case and becomes a mentor for her.

What follows is the slow, much too talky road to figuring out who this shooter is and catching him.

Clarice starling? Not so much

Source: Vertical Entertainment

The publicity for this film compares it as a new Silence of The Lambs. Not only are those big shoes to fill, but it sets up the audience for something that this film couldn’t possibly hold up to.

Falco is the main character, but she is woefully quiet during much of the investigation. When she isn’t, she is given sexist jobs like holding a crying baby of a witness being interrogated, instead of the other male officer, Mackenzie (Jovan Adepo). Dismissed and looked down upon by almost everyone, she struggles to find a place within the investigation.

Like Clarice Starling, Falco has an innate ability to see what isn’t obviously seen, and becomes a crucial part of tracking down and ultimately catching the serial killer, but it isn’t in any way close to the level that Clarice is.

Where Clarice is given power to investigate on her own, interrogate Lecter and control the scenes of each of Buffalo Bill’s victims, Falco is set aside and wholly diminished by those around her, including Lammarck. He makes sure to express how unqualified she is; her lack of education and her lack of mental fitness to be doing this job in the first place.

Falco is left in silence for the most part and crying about her past traumas that are never quite clear. She is said to have struggles with addiction, but not only is drinking encouraged by her colleagues who know she is an addict, but she actually drinks and it is treated casually as if she weren’t. She is rarely strongly vocal and remains meek to the very end.

Source: Vertical Entertainment

In All Honesty…

To Catch A Killer is an awkwardly, lackadaisical serial killer film devoid of characterization, story depth and action.

It is two hours of mostly office scenes, where all anyone does is talk to each other and belittle Falco. The small amount of action scenes are quite exciting but the film drops its audience off for such long periods of talking tedium that any interest becomes void.

Most of the characters are so underdeveloped that we don’t really care about any of them. The killer himself, set up to be so ghastly, ends up trying to justify his actions with a story that, instead of killing mass amounts of people, could’ve been taken care of much more easily in a therapist’s office.

He isn’t the cold, calculated killer seen in Lambs, but more someone disgruntled by capitalism. The film tries really hard to give him a past that may align with his actions but ultimately we find out that it was pretty normal overall. They throw in being shot by a pellet gun as a child as one of the reasons for why he “isn’t right”. Really?

Even how he kills his victims is very distant and impersonal with no commonalities between the victims, which ends up leaving us with a feeling that the reason for these killings is “just because”. None of them were or did anything except be within his gun site.

Source: Vertical Entertainment

How Falco is used throughout the film gives us no reason that the killer also wouldn’t just shoot her as well. Why would someone so reckless stop to have a chat with her? There isn’t anything special about her nor does she possess something that he would want.

They draw a very weak similarity between them at the end, but it in no way explains why he would spare her. Anyone other than Falco could have been used for that and it wouldn’t have changed the story. Even his reasoning behind the mass killings was weak at best.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, great writing is the foundation of any good film. There is no amount of action, stars or FX that can save a weak script that was never fully fleshed out. More disappointingly is that this was originally a book, so, if the book was well done, they had all of the characterization already done for them.

Anyone looking to be thrilled, scared or connected to characters will end up disappointed

The Legend of Vox Machina, Season Two: Even Better Than the First

Hold on to your hats! The Vox Machina crew are back better than ever in their second season! The stakes couldn’t be higher and the villains are virtually indestructible!

Watch as Percy (Taliesan Jaffe), Grog (Travis Willingham), Vex’ahlia (Laura Bailey), Vax’ildan (Liam O’Brien), Pike (Ashley Johnson), Scanlan (Sam Riegel), Keyleth (Marisha Ray), and Trinket (Matthew Mercer) battle, scrape, run, avoid, narrowly escape and plot against the most powerful group of dragons they’ve ever met, The Chroma Conclave.

Enter the dragon

It’s seemingly just minutes after they save Eamon from the clutches of the evil dragon Brimscythe of Season One, that the Chroma Conclave blasts onto the scene and Season Two savagely roars into view. Lead by the powerful Thordak (Lance Reddick) the dragons burn, freeze and melt their way through the town, pillaging every last object of value to fulfill Thordak’s greed and lust for power.

Source: Prime Video

Having heard of their brother Brimscythe’s demise, the group are fixed upon finding and ending Vox Machina and intent on making every village suffer until they do. The dragon Umbrasyl (Matthew Mercer) leads the dragons on this hunt after the siege, while Thordak keeps watch over his new conquest and its people.

When the group finds the dragon’s power to be overwhelmingly devastating, Keyleth uses her powers to transport them out to regroup.

The Quest

The group then retreats to Vasselheim, a city long protected by isolation and neutrality, to ask for weapons and soldiers to aid them against the Conclave. When their requests are refused, a servant of a Vasselheim Highbearer secretly tells them about a seedy place called the Slayer’s Take, where they must speak with its patron to get help with the dragons.

Source: Prime Video

The patron, a living sphynx called Osysa (Alanna Ubach), tells them that, in order to defeat the dragons, they must go on a quest to find the Vestiges of Divergence. The Vestiges of Divergence are ancient weapons created to kill the Gods, that were scattered across the land in obscure locations, so as not to allow just anyone to wield their power.

Each of the Vestige quests have puzzles; tests of strength and dangers unto themselves that require the unique talents of each Voxer and challenge them to their individual limits. Will the team be enough to defeat the wrath of the Chroma Conclave?

In all honesty…

The Legend of Vox Machina, Season 2 is nothing short of breathtaking.

All that Season One built is but a drop in the ocean of the vastness that awaits in Season Two, which, considering most “seconds” of films and tv usually don’t compare, is genuinely refreshing.

Source: Prime Video

Season Two delves deeper into the personal lives of each character, showing us the foundations they were built on, to how they have each been challenged and how they’ve grown in the end. We see layer upon layer of their fears; what haunts them; their pasts; their families; their weaknesses and how each of them overcomes them.

It also dives into the vastness of the meaning of human friendships; how each person is an irreplaceable cog in the unending machine that is life and what it truly means to work together.

The animation is top notch blending 2D and 3D almost seamlessly in every scene. The creativity and richness of the different worlds truly sends the viewer on a fantastical trip, heightening the experience and introducing us to a lushness not seen in many, more recent animated series. It’s definitely up there with the likes of Castlevania and other shows of that ilk.

The best part of it, for me, was the careful attention paid to almost every character. Vax, Vex, Grog and Scanlon are front and center this season, but the stories require the individual talents of all of them. They even share the reticence and downright awkwardness of the possibility of blooming love stories between them.

Source: Prime Video

Though some of the fight scenes still seem surreal due the nature of how much the team can take (yes, I get that it’s a fantasy), there is also a focus on their limitations and their need to ask for help, making the characters more relatable so that audiences can further bond with them.

As a big Percy fan in Season One, I’m hoping that the writers delve deeper into him next season. As a writer and critic, I’m hoping that the Vox Machina team continues to execute the same regard and meticulousness to all future seasons as they have in this one.

There is no doubt of the passion, thus far, involved in this and I’m so thrilled to see it.

Handmaid's Tale Season 4: A Stunning, Spectacular, Emotional Journey

Hulu’s spectacular series, The Handmaid’s Tale, returns for Season 4. If you thought the past three seasons were good, be prepared to be breathless with, hands down, the best, most impressive season of the series.

Bringing the Best and Pulling ALL of the Punches

At the end of season 3, June (Elisabeth Moss) had managed to rescue around 80 children from the clutches of Gilead and flew them all to Canada to be reunited with their real families. She, painfully, stayed behind to help more children and handmaids and, of course, find her own kidnapped daughter, Hannah (Jordana Blake).

Season 4 keeps the momentum going, blazing with the fire of war both literally and figuratively. Unlike many of the past seasons that ceremoniously focused on character back stories, Season 4 wastes very little time in it’s forward and, sometimes, backward motion. Every single episode has a soul-shattering revelation and/or a shocking development that is unmissable.

We welcome back the regular characters of past seasons and meet a few new ones. From the steadfast Moira (Samira Wiley), the scheming Waterfords, Fred and Serena, (Joseph Fiennes and Yvonne Strahovsky); the stealthy Nick (Max Minghella) to the brilliant Ann Dowd, as the earnestly vengeful Aunt Lydia.

There isn’t a cast member that doesn’t give their absolute best to each of the characters. There is no slack anywhere, at any moment. Through all of the powerful and heart wrenching circumstances, the actors fully embody their characters and the performances are outstanding.

Moss gives her best performance to date in the series, which speaks volumes, as her past performances of June were nothing short of riveting.

This season, June is expected to endure more than any human can take and Moss never relents. Sometimes searing, other times agonizing, her performance should be at the top of every list during awards season. Moss also takes a hand at directing three of this season’s episodes.

Source: Hulu

In All Honesty…

There aren’t enough words to express the brilliance of Season Four’s daunting, impassioned, rollercoaster.

I expected that Season Four would be good but I never expected the level of dedication, effort, struggle and mastery that the artists of this season give both on and behind the screen. Everything about this Season is spectacular and cannot be missed.

When I say that every single episode holds a secret or happening that will shock, move, disturb, make you laugh or make you cry, I mean it. I literally felt exhausted for the actors at times. Handmaid’s Tale, Season Four, gets into your skin, grips you and makes you participate.

We feel the emotions of the actors; we awe at the spectacular filming; we are astonished by the meticulous writing; and anguish and marvel with every twist and turn. There isn’t a moment of any episode that drags or is unnecessary.

Be prepared to burn in the blistering fire of June’s wrath as nothing will stand in her way to serve justice and bring Gilead to its knees.

Season Four begins Wednesday, April 28, 2021 exclusively on Hulu.

The Power: What Goes Around Will Come Around

“You will listen to us”

What is it about the dark that is so scary? The unknown? Our own imaginations? Or is it something that lurks deep within our psyches; something we simply don’t want to deal with?

Writer/director Corinna Faith brings us a tale, not only of things that go bump in the night, but brings to light, within the dark, a subject far too ignored in our world: The chronic silencing of women.

Things Are Not Always What They Seem

The film takes place in early 1974 England, when there was a crisis between the government and coal workers, which lead to early blackouts each evening to conserve electricity.

Val (Rose Williams) is a new nurse starting at a decrepit, urban hospital. Meek and submissive, she is intimidated by almost every person she comes into contact with, except the charming Dr. Franklin (Charlie Carrick), who seems to take to Val right away. Val wishes to work with children and Dr. Franklin attempts to help her do so, despite the overbearing hospital matron (Diveen Henry), who won’t seem to give Val a break.

While wandering the halls, Val meets up with Saba (Shakira Rahman), a young, non-English speaking patient of Dr. Franklin and takes to her. As Val’s problems grow with her co-workers and an ominous presence in the hospital begins to make itself known, Saba and Val forge an unlikely bond, not realizing just how much they have in common.

A Whisper To A Scream

Source: Shudder

Shortly after Val begins working the night shift the lights get powered down in the hospital.

She’s forced to orient herself to a multiple level, labyrinth of a hospital while being harassed by the men who work there, scorned by her female colleagues and being plagued by things that go “bump” in the night.

As the evening drags on, she finds herself engaged with an angry spirit, intent on gaining her attention, for what reason, she does not know. The more she tries to run away, the more the spirit torments her, possessing her body if need be, to get it’s mission completed.

As Val meets character after character in the hospital, the mystery gradually becomes clearer, as she realizes there is more to fear from the people working there, than the eerie presence haunting her every move.

Source: Shudder

In All Honesty…

If a picture speaks a thousand words, then this film speaks innumerable.

Faith brings us a film that appears, on the surface, as one we’ve seen before. But as the film progresses we see, that what we thought we knew, isn’t actually what is going on.

With skillful and genuinely frightening scares, Faith creates a wake up call for all who are watching. The message? Women are not meant to be fodder for toxic masculinity. Yet from how women are treated on a daily basis and have been for millennia, one would never know it.

Faith brings this subject to the screen in a very inventive and ingenious way using character and metaphor to bring it to life. She writes very skillfully and purposefully, with nothing extraneous or unnecessary and holds off satisying her audience until the very end.

Though the idea of the angry ghost is very common, Faith backs it up with creativity and allegory so painstakingly planned out, it keeps you guessing till the very end. Once you think you’ve “seen it before”, another twist comes in to prove you wrong.

The beauty of this film lies in its pictures and subtleties. Each character represents an archetype of personality and the hospital itself is a character; a massive, looming representation that enshrouds the other characters in it’s powerful, malevolent force. Hopefully, one that is breaking down, just as the hospital in the film is.

It’s climax is not to be missed or misunderstood. Without spoilers, I found it to be an incandescent breath of fresh air. It tingles the spine while blowing you away with metaphorical and corporeal wrath so wonderful, it leaves you speechless and overcome with toasty goosebumps-if you understand it and are open to it.

As a connoisseur of the Horror genre, I found that The Power stands tall amongst it’s predecessors and is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Things Aren't Always As They Seem in Rust Creek

Source: IFC Films

For most of movie history, the victims of film are nearly always women. Most of these victims are written and directed overwhelmingly by men. When this happens, we always see females from the male perspective, i.e., how they should look, act and feel according to men.

In the thriller Rust Creek, we find yet another female victim, but this time, the “victim” fights back. Refreshingly directed and written by women, the main character Sawyer (Hermione Corfield), and most of the film, turns out to be much more than meets the eye.

Toxic Masculinity

The cornerstone to most thrillers or horror that feature women as victims, is the societal idea that men are stronger and better than women. This long held “boys will be boys” mentality drives this myth and it has been propagated in stories throughout time. As such, this myth has flourished and is widely accepted. We see it time and time again in myriads of ways in all forms of media.

Rust Creek starts out seemingly driving the same way we’ve seen countless horrors and thrillers, but, it dares to actually take on the status quo and make the audience rethink some of the carbon-copied, tired stereotypes in multiple ways.

Sawyer is an overachieving, athletic, college senior on her way to a dream job interview. Coming from Kentucky and having to drive to Washington DC on Thanksgiving weekend, she decides to skip the usual jammed traffic patterns and finds herself on a dubious route through the Appalachians. Now, anyone who’s tried to use their GPS through the mountains knows that if the GPS has to re-route you for any reason, you’re literally up the creek without a paddle.

When the roads lead her to a series of barricades and she fails to get a signal on her phone, she attempts to read an old map she has in the glove box. Why she feels the need to get out of her vehicle to look at it is just one of the many questionable mistakes she makes throughout the film. Enter the toxic male yokels, sadistic Hollister (Micah Hauptman) and Buck (Daniel R. Hill), to harass her. This is the first place the film and it’s protagonist start down a unique, winding path of the unexpected.

Source: IFC Films

Sawyer fights both men back in an attempt to save herself. She doesn’t just cower and scream like most female victims in film. She manages to escape them, even after Buck stabs her leg, leaving them with some deleterious wounds of their own. Her problems escalate from here as she enters a massive mountain forest with no idea which way is which. She is in their territory now, and the November cold, with an open wound and only the clothes on her back.

No One To Trust

When Commander Slattery (John Marshall Jones), a state trooper sees Sawyer’s “abandoned” vehicle, he alerts local Sheriff O’Doyle (Sean O’Bryan) and asks him to investigate it. O’Doyle’s dutiful deputy, Katz (Jeremy Glazer), jumps on the chance to investigate anything in their sleepy town, but O’Doyle seems averse to let him. When Katz takes it upon himself to investigate further, he discovers that his reality isn’t what he thought it was.

Meanwhile Sawyer, after playing a seeming unending game of cat and mouse with Hollister and Buck, passes out from blood loss and fatigue. She is found by loner Lowell (Jay Paulson), who takes her in and fixes her wounds.

Upon awakening, she is visibly shaken, leery of Lowell and ill from blood loss but she is forced to trust him in order to recover. In another way the narrative challenges the status quo, Sawyer finds she has much to learn from Lowell, who is someone less formally educated than herself. Though the odd pair forge a makeshift alliance, Sawyer’s success is far from guaranteed with mounting antagonists, both known and unknown, closing in all around her.

Throughout the story her prejudices and assumptions are repeatedly challenged as she navigates a twisted terrain for survival.

Source: IFC Films

When Women Lead

As a cinephile and Film Critic I’ve seen countless films. Because film has been a mostly male dominated industry, female directed and written films have been few and far in between. As a critic, I’ve noticed some pretty remarkable differences between male versus female made films.

The most palpable is content significance. No matter what gender is being portrayed onscreen, women tend to create more characters with far greater range, depth and intricacy. There is almost always more to each character’s story; the characters are more genuine and relatable; more of the characters, good or bad, struggle with complex personal issues, instead of just representing generic archetypes and they exhibit greater emotional authenticity.

Rust Creek is no exception. Director Jen McGowan leads a powerhouse trio of visual storytellers with an unexpectedly complex script by Julie Lipson, coupled with the bleak, desolate imagery of a bare winter forest by cinematographer Michelle Lawler, that mimics the profound lack of warmth and opportunity the small community holds. Throw in an astutely played Sawyer by Cortfield and, what looks on the surface to be a film we’ve seen a thousand times, turns out to be a multi-layered, multifaceted convolution of curve balls and metaphor.

The film stumbles with a bit of slow pacing at times, but even that gives the audience a chance to get to know the characters a bit more and leads us deeper into it’s serpentine, yet interconnected world. It is cleverly crafted and proof that women can deliver in thrillers.

Not that I needed convincing of that.

Rust Creek is in select theaters in the US and available to stream on iTunes and Prime Video, January 4th, 2019.