Review: Meet Me There

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2015
Images from the Internet

Meet Me There

Cinematography, edited and directed by Lex Lybrand
SGL Entertainment / Greenless Studios / MVD Visual
93 minutes / 2014
www.sglentertainment.com
www.mvdvisual.com

Most horror films have an opening scene, usually before the credits, be it Michael as a child killing his parents, or Drew answering the phone while making popcorn, and that is also true here. This one starts a bit like Trains, Planes and Automobiles (1987), but when we watch two men travel to, and arrive in the town of Sheol (translated as “place of the dead,” or in the Greek New Testament, “Hades”; man, I love the Internet), Oklahoma, what happens there is certainly not what I expected. Off to a great start!

Post-credits, we meet the multi-inked and obviously in love cohabitating young couple Ada (Lisa Friedrich, who looks like a much cuter Kristen Stewart at 6-feet tall, in her first IMDB listed role) and lucky bastard / out of his league Calvin (Michael Foulk, who is obviously less than 6-foot), who are having trouble with intimacy – well, she is anyway; he’s just frustrated. Searching for answers to why she’s so prickly about getting personal, they leave Texas to her home town – yep, Sheol – where they encounter many strange people, including her religiously zealous coked-out aunt (Jill Thompson, of Scary Grandmother “fame,” with a face full of scabs) and imposing Preacher Woodward (Dustin Runnels, better known to the world as the WWE’s Goldust).

This is a town full of death, of course, as all horror film low-population loci are, and this one is presided by demise of both mysterious and by multiple means. Its forms of sacrifice by self and others is shown in its violence, and surrender, and sometimes both. And literally, what happens in Sheol stays in Sheol.



Lex Lybrand, Michael Foulk, Dustin "Goldust" Runnels, Lisa Friedrich

While this film could have been tailored by around 15 minutes or so, it’s actually well put together. Lybrand both directs and shoots the film with good pacing and beautiful lighting, giving more of a natural feel than most releases that wallow in stark primary colors. Sure, the night scene has the mandatory bluish hue, as it probably should, and dream sequences (or are they?) are in black and white, but the rest feels natural. The actors are lit in ways that make them look like real people rather than mannequins, and even in the dark-of-night scenes, the viewer can make out what is happening, rather than it being murky.

As for the script, while yes there can be some snipping as I said (e.g., the multiple stories during the car ride), the characters have a pretty realistic relationship, and don’t act “stupid” in dangerous situations (e.g., “A masked killer is hunting us…let’s stay in the house and run upstairs!”), but rather know when it’s time to get the hell out. Whether that helps them out or not, at least they have a better plan than most. Thanks to writer Brandon Stroud for that, who collected the supposedly true stories and/or dreams of Destiny Talley.

The actors, both lead and secondary, tend to get the job done well. The majority of the emotions feel real, and they react how you might imagine you’d expect someone in that situation to react, rather than just being mindlessly “Yaaaaaaah!” with arms akimbo or super-macho.

This film has been selected for quite a few festivals, and that is hardly a surprise to me. It has a velvety feel, some dream-like visuals without being overly esoteric, and a finish that is worth discussing among friends if you decide to pick this for a movie night. Nice nudity and some minimal gore (what I call CSI-level), so I wouldn’t recommend it to kids, but adults who are a bit sensitive may enjoy it, too.

The three listed extras are the trailer and individual interviews with Runnels (3:30) and Jill Thompson (5:30). While I understand that they are the “names” here, I would also liked to have seen a talking head of the leads, Foulk and especially Friedrich, this being her first film. There is also an unlisted commentary track by the director, which gives a lot of key information about the making of the film from a personal and technical standpoint, and some stories about the cast and writers. Most importantly, he gives some motivation for why in certain scenes.

Lastly, for all the professional wrestling fans (how many are you are disappointed about how the UFC is taking over? Show of hands?), there are a lot of lucha libre wrestlers who are not only one of the leads, but in secondary roles (commentary will clue you in). Also Stroud runs a wrestling blog and apparently Thompson is a huge fan of the art of the mat, so there is also that element.