Outrage (2009)

A total genre mixup

"Outrage" includes backwoods yokels, city slickers, spirits, healers and who could forget crazed military ex-cons. The location of Georgia is about the only aspect that stays still. The subgenres change over from a death in the family, vacation, potential love, hostage, spiritual, thriller and survivalist with some tongue-in-cheek humor if that wasn't enough regarding other films--yep, these guys have ADHD or they're assuming you do with all your various electronic gizmos and gadgets to distract... Instead of the experience being refreshing, it feels like an Easter egg hunt where people show up that weren't invited, you're to scour for unguessable items without a map and rules are added and subtracted on sheer whim.


An oafish looking hunter named Billy gets struck by lightning and gains a new perspective on hunting animals for sport. Next a woman and man are being hunted in another stretch of woods by far more dangerous rednecks called the Loomis brothers, only to run off and get killed by a sniper. Oblivious, a woman named Christine and her pal Trey (director Ace "Friend Zone" Cruz) are headed out for the remote area to sell her late dad's cabin that Billy was a caretaker for. Two of their friends--a wild husband and wife--show up for a mini vacation that gets cut short for all when the Loomis brothers and mysterious leader Farragut--who were former inmates from the local military prison--tie them up and terrorize them. In the ordeal, Billy dies but his spirit comes out of his body to watch the events unfold. The remaining escape but have to fight for their lives in the nearby woods.


Billy's character frequently narrates overtop like a "Sling Blade" meets "Forrest Gump" with life's little lessons in between. "Sometimes life's like a seesaw. One minute everything is happy and fun. The next minute, it ain't." His pal, same exact actor from "Deliverance," doesn't speak but lets his banjo do the talking with a sixth sense for picking up pitches of people's emotions. There's a fine line between acting slow and coming across as accidentally comical in all the wrong places or just plain retarded if the performer doesn't create staying power or charm. Billy's character goes over the mark, which makes it a challenge to take it with any shred of merit. Especially since they made him such a typical hillbilly caricature with overalls and fake chompers to boot. It's possible they only wanted to be light hearted but he ended up being cartoonish at times.

Michael Madsen plays a condescending military man with nothing to lose. It's all sadistic fun and games as he torments and terrorizes his captives with little end goal in mind to make him more of a mad man--except like all diabolical villains he might have a surprise up his sleeve. Michael Berryman plays a faith healer of little words named Obeah who gives Christine a healing rock and advice about losing her fear or else she won't win the fight. Christine was kidnapped when she was younger and has a rage regarding it. Her father taught her how to survive and protect herself, which isn't always capitalized on here as she runs more than fights.


This can make one's head spin as it's both a conflicting story as to what to feel or where it's headed next but then at other points it's treated so simplistically as to hold the audience's hand with a quick and lazy narration overtop about who, when or why. This tries to do a different type of thriller/survival film, though a share of the characters don't feel real to life but just thrown together for contrast's sake. Not to mention the sequences of events are told in such an awkward way as to lose the viewer in subtext over and over again without giving a break for breathing room. It has heart and loads of ambition but the lack of resources and power to pull everything off. It threw together far too many clashing tones without measuring them out or giving time for a steady focal point; the various musical cues--from old-fashioned to modern--didn't exactly help bring it together either. Its attempts at trying to make this serious and tongue-in-cheek at the same time falls flat. The experience makes one feel detached without a stable mood to latch onto.

There are some messages that deal with violence and how hate can destroy a person by following them around if they don't let go. Despite not working entirely, the story does come full circle for all those involved, so there's some meaning for the viewing experience instead of just going with a throw away film with superficial action moves and violence; it's a good thing as the action choreography usually consists of them running from place to place--sometimes tripping--without always giving a challenging cat and mouse chase.

The verdict: the film never manages to slow its ambitious heels to make the overall experience move at the same time as the audience instead of getting too overexcited and running ahead.

Rating: 2.5/10

Director: Ace Cruz (Fate, Desert of Death)
Stars: Paulyd, Katie Fountain, Ace Cruz, Natasha Lyonne, Michael Madsen, Michael Madsen, Michael Berryman
Link: IMDB

Slaughter (2009)

Two young women finding themselves on a farm--not what you think

This somewhat misleading title of a movie--that should have been called something like "The Back Room" or "Scarred Life" or anything else--was marketed with the other After Dark Fest features that are typically horror films. However, this is a more tame feature that plays out more as a simple drama at first with the everyday problems of family, friendship and relationships, turns over to a possible crime story, then for the last third it steps up with more suspense and thrills than it lets on to be with a nicely timed twist where the tables get turned.

"Slaughter" starts out with a bound woman being dragged to a dock, only to be pushed into the water and a cinder block to make sure she stays down. In Atlanta, a woman named Faith is running away from boyfriend trouble when she by chance meets the loose and lively woman named Lola in a night club. They connect right away and Faith decides to move to Lola's family's pig farm for work as her controlling ex-boyfriend Jimmy is getting closer and closer to finding her. Lola and Faith return to the clubs at night and usually Lola comes home with a new man who's along the lines of a sugar daddy. The older brother is somewhat cruel and the all-blinds, no-words father is put off by the daughter with distasteful looks, not to mention they don't seem to like their new guest hanging about. Faith looks out for her friend and suspects something is going on in the slaughterhouse that's closed off to her when the men disappear by the morning time.

The mystery element is partly obvious from the title and opening scene, though the reason why and full scope is eluded to. The clues in the meantime aren't exactly Sherlock Holmes type material with some filler bread crumbs with a wrist watch here and a set of keys there. Faith's character also seems to be generally suspicious without the script always giving her a really solid reason to be so. She often heads in the right direction as if she has some kind of hidden instinct that we don't know about. There aren't always enough clues given out to nail you to the seat of what's going on behind the scenes, though the story isn't always sensationalized with excessive blood and there's no nudity. The finale is somewhat manipulative when the tables keep getting turned, though it's also somewhat depressing and sad that its cold conclusion was inevitable. This doesn't always wander into the exaggerated, over-the-top cinematic experience with loud and overly stylish filmmaking mechanics, as this attempts to go for some realism with its scenarios and character motivations--even if some are far-fetched it makes it easier to accept them. I originally thought this was going one way, helped by the "Texas Chainsaw" homages--camera flash sound effect and all--and it ended up being more a red herring in a way to something else. It's building up to something unexpected that involves all characters shown and has a story to unravel and finalize than going for shock value alone.

The performances seem to come into themselves, by at first coming across as a little stale, probably more so at what they have to work with in the drama department, but as it progresses the two leading women reveal a little more depth about themselves. The supporting cast comes across more for script development and to pad this with more bodies; like a game of chess with only two pieces doing the main work but the rest filling out the board. The boyfriend Jimmy seemed the pawn of the roles with less authentic power. The youngest brother had a form of charisma and represented some innocence amongst the darker aspects. In case you're thinking it, the premise might at first glance seem like something out of a softcore film with two highly attractive women at an isolated farm finding out who they are in life with some experimenting going on. Settle down, settle down. It dodges eroticism with a cold dash, but still plays on moralless sex and violence as if they're implicitly linked. Should you be able to freely let yourself indulge without problems from family, friends or even yourself? Even on a personal level emotions usually follow and some people either move on before that happens and while the enjoyment lasts, or possibly get their feelings hurt in the meantime, while others are at it for different reasons than the mentioned

Rating: 6/10

Director: Steward Hopewell (Going to Pieces - second unit director)
Stars: Amy Shiels, Lucy Holt
Link: IMDB