SUNDANCE 2021: film #15

“just a happy coincidence”

damn... this was brutal: super well executed but hard to stomach, and so effective that if i close my eyes i can almost hear the audience exhaling in unison when it cuts to black

Beautifully shot for such a bleak film. A school teacher and his family take a trip out to a secluded coastline, everything seems normal until they encounter two sadistic drifters who take them on a hellish road trip down memory lane. Well acted by everyone. Barely 20 minutes in, it became extremely tense and ugly. The story slowly reveals why this is happening to the family. When the details were unveiled, it does make you question who was the actual villain. I still didn't think it was enough to warrant what took place in the present time. And it does drag out quite a bit but wraps up the film in a way I was satisfied with. It's relentless thriller and I am here for it.

"I'm looking for more than that" - Mandrake,

- 2021 Ranked: boxd.it/aL2Ys
- Sundance 2021 Ranked: boxd.it/b1NDo

Kind of thrilling? Kind of not.

I was in search of something with a bit more engagement and uniqueness. This film gets you at times but as a whole is a fairly predictable and standard stalking/captivity thriller. Some intense stuff happens but I just never felt connected to the pain or trauma because there is a paint by numbers quality to this film that just made everything and everyone feel like they were going through the motions.

Meh.

The direction, score, performances and cinematography are really good. Likewise, it does a great job at building tension.

It certainly starts off strong. The problem is that as the film progresses it starts to become repetitive and after like 40-50 minutes, I completely lost interest and I just stopped caring about this character at all; I didn't care if he lived or died.

It gets really messy, and just never gets to the point of actually being compelling. Some things are left hanging. There's not even a satisfying payoff. It just didn't quite work for me.

🔙 Night at the Eagle Inn (2021)
🔜 Silent Night (2021)

Handles the messy repercussions of trauma and the futility of revenge with stark realism. A solid road horror with the downbeatest of downbeat narrative trajectories, good building/maintaining a sense of unease not so much through the situation itself as much as everyone's troubled pasts eroding their present. Didn’t shock me quite like I hoped which I boil down more to me being a bit desensitised rather than the film’s fault, while the sins of the past justifying the violence kinda fell flat and I was at times unconvinced, but as a debut it’s a crushing declaration of intent. Caught off-guard by the glimmer of empathy I had found for the antagonist Mandrake by the end. There are no bad guys here, just lost souls doing bad things

This was fantastic!!! Where has this been hiding?!?!? Dark, violent, unpredictable and deeply, deeply MISERABLE. In the best way possible of course. A school teacher is forced to confront his past when a pair of two menacing strangers take him and his family on a nightmarish road trip. But, it doesn't necessarily play out how you'd expect it to based on the synopsis. There are lots of genuinely shocking moments, a surprisingly emotional backstory that leaves you in a slightly moral grey area, and a lead performance from Daniel Gillies (who deserves to be known as more than John Jameson in Spider-man 2) that blew me away!!!

Give this one a watch. An incredibly haunting, underseen horror flick.

Spooktober Year 4: Part 10

My Last Review: | Hallow Road |

The first film from Sundance '21 to truly stick to my bones. Hails from New Zealand yet is clearly influenced by classic Ozploitation tales of madness in the middle of nowhere. Children, wiped from the face of the earth without a second thought. Adults, too terrified of retribution to face their past. All it takes is a gun and a long car ride for the truth to emerge. One of the most punishingly brutal - both viscerally and emotionally - first viewings I've enjoyed in quite a while. Will probably follow James Ashcroft's career to the gates of Hell after this one.

I can see so many clear ways to elevate this movie but still worth a watch

COMING HOME IN THE DARK announces to the world a new filmmaking talent in James Ashcroft. While his skill for visuals, tension & horror are fully on display, the screenplay runs out of ideas quickly. Daniel Gillies kept me invested though due to his terrifyingly psychopathic performance. First 25 minutes are the best by a long, dark & windy mile!

Sundance #29