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Red River
USA 2010
produced by Paige Kay Davis, Cecilia Waller, Michael Raso (executive) for TuckyWood Productions, Silver Chain Films
directed by Jacob Ennis
starring Dave Haney, Jason Crowe, Dustin Roe, Ronica Jones, Levi Brandenburg, Megan Marie Wilson, Jackey Hall, Misty Simmons-Poteet, Tucky Williams, Christian Brooker, Cecilia Waller, George Robert Bailey, Billy W.Blackwell, Cherokee Hall, Sonny Burnette, Kenny Ennis, Kel Lovons, Kayla Perkins, Russ Croley, Sven Granlund, Heather Price, Anthony Townsend, Charles Lasher, Reaper M.Jones, Randy Martin, Daniel Roberts, Brian Buffington, Billy Jack Fuller jr, John Cory Stringer, Emily Wesley, Shawn C.Phillips, M. Kelley
written by Jacob Ennis, Gregory W.Brock, music by Danny Jones, special makeup effects by Cineline Productions
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, USA: Old man Thatcher (Dave Haney)
is roaming the countryside, killing people left and right, turning their
meat into fertilizer or selling it to the local hamburger joint as minced
meat, or just feeding it to his malformed son (Jason Crowe), whom he keeps
on a leash in his basement to guard his captives (victims he keeps alive
for later) and whom he has brought up as a cannibal. The reason he has
been able to kill all these people quite so freely is because he lives
really deep in the woods, and nobody cares about a few missing persons
more or less anyways. Even when two rangers (Tucky Williams, Christian
Brooker) fall prey to him, it takes forever for the other rangers to go
look for them - and even then they all fall victim to Thatcher's villainy. There
is one nosy reporter, Janice (Cecilia Waller), who tries to find out what
happened to all those who have gone missing, but she is so caught up
in her own theories that she misses the most vital clue, and when she
finally catches up with old man Thatcher anyways by complete coincidence,
she comes unprepared and falls victim to him quite easily. There are
five teens camping out in the vicinity of Thatcher's home, permanently
drunk Sam (Jackey Hall), horny couple Cliff (Levi Brandenburg) and Natisha
(Megan Marie Wilson), and boring couple Wes (Dustin Roe) and Tammera
(Ronica Jones). Sam makes the easiest victim of course, but she's also
tortured the most, Cliff and Tammera are offed just like that, but Natisha
is made one of Thatcher's captives and Wes, who wakes up among his corpses
after having been caught in a bear trap. The two of them still have a
fighting chance, especially after Natisha chops off Thatcher's arm and Wes
manages to kill Thatcher's malformed son, but ultimately Thatcher stops
their escape attempts and that of another of his captives (Misty
Simmons-Poteet) short as well. It takes forever to shed some light on
what has been going on in the forest that night, but finally a
search-and-rescue team finds the remains of some of Thatcher's victims,
which will certainly lead to Thatcher's eventual arrest - if he doesn't
get his hands on the search-and-rescue team first ... The best
backwoods slasher in a very long time, basically becausee the film throws
the traditional slasher formula overboard pretty early in the movie and
instead tries to tell an interesting story, shed some light on so-far
underappreciated aspects of slasher stories (including the question
"why can a killer go undetected for quite so long?"), and
presents the audience with a set of interesting and (despite all their
flaws) likeable characters for a change. Of course, the fact that director
Jacob Ennis pulls no stops when it comes to gore scenes won't exactly sit
unwell with the traditional slasher audience either, but believe me,
that's not the main reason to watch the movie. Recommended!
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