Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2020
Images from the Internet
Terror in Woods Creek (aka Deadlines)
Directed by Tracy Lee Staton
Roadkill Entertainment / Wild Eye Releasing / MVD
Entertainment
94 minutes, 2017 / 2020
In the small Virginia
town of Woods Creek, population under two grand, there is an evil that recurs
every 50 years or so. No, it’s not the Creeper from Jeepers Creepers,
this is more of an old school, Biblical evil from the pits of hell that has
come to visit. We are introduced to the Drifter (Royce Hobson), a cool lookin’
dude with smashing early ‘60s sideburns, a big smile, and eyeliner.
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| Royce Hobson |
What is it about devilishly
and deliciously joyous supernatural evil men that you can spot them a mile away
by their eyeliner? Sure, the sideburns scream “watch out,” but it is the
eyeliner on these squinty-eyed dudes that make them so obvious; it’s quite the
common trope. But one other thing to note is if your satanic guy is wearing
eyeliner, he is going to be a fun character to watch. He is so cool and malevolent:
he constantly smokes, yet still often has a cigarette tucked behind his ear at
the same time.
Anyway, back in 1962,
the town was visited by this very same Drifter – as we see in the prologue –
while the whole joint is going crazy and killing either others or themselves,
right out of Cronenberg’s The Crazies. After that we pop up to 50 years
later, and it is 2012, and guess who has come back with his ‘burns, eyeliner and
a cool retro ’65 Buick named Ruby bearing a license plate that proclaims “Burn
One”?
The modern town is
filled with people with cutesy homage names, such as Police Detective Smith
Wesson (Robert Barger Jr, who looks a bit like Stephen King in Creepshow)
and the priest is Father Fulci (John Johnson).
Whatever their nomenclature,
everybody is just sweatin’ out ‘tude in this film, from the relatively good people
to the absolutely bad ones, such as news reporter Tippi Thompson (Jaclyn Vames),
said police detective, the abusive garage guy Jesco (Matthew Ewald, who also writes horror-themed novels you can check out), and especially
The Drifter. Though I should point out while this covers both sexes, the women
come out better in general numbers than the male of the species. An exception is
the heinous High School Principal (Camille Keaton of the 1978 classic I Spit
on Your Grave / Day of the Woman, in a stand-out cameo). The most likeable
person, though, is the busty bartender, Bobby Jo (Katherine Tryon, who is also an
Executive Producer).
Oh, and did I mention
on top of all this, there is also a person in overalls and a potato sack over
his head tied on by twine around the neck that is going around helping others meet
the boat at the River Styx? He walks around with (and uses) an axe, and is
called “Potato Sack Jack.” To me, his conversation with the Drifter is one of
the high points of the film.
Beneath the story is
an underlying dark sense of humor that shows its head in the form of mostly dialog,
but also some of the deaths are kind of humorous, in a sick way. Some killings
are “Good, they deserved it!” and others are “Damn, I liked that person.” It’s
more balanced when they do that.
Most of the film is
just menacing and murder, but the truly magickal and supernatural part of it does
not really come until the third act, even though there are a-plenty of killin’
throughout. Nearly all of the actual murders are done off-screen, but this is a
story-based tale, so that is okay. Still the “after” SFX look pretty damn cool.
As far as the acting
goes, well, Hobson and Ewald definitely comes off the best. Some of the acting
is kind of a mix of hokey and wooden, but with all the drawls, it all works
out. Part of this is that is seems like the director employed a few of the
locals (i.e., not professional actors) in Buena Vista, VA, where it was mostly
filmed.
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| Robert Rydland and Matthew Ewald |
There is a good
contingent of the cast that also does double duty as the crew, especially Tryon
and Johnson. And I know I shouldn’t make anything out of this, but the director
being female made me happy (I bring it up because it does not happen often enough,
and I want to recognize and encourage that). With the exception of Tryon’s
constant cleavage, this is a pretty balanced film, and sexist behavior is
pointed out often and sometimes indirectly (it was also written by Staton), even
if it isn’t stopped until after the fact, such as Jesco’s relationship to his girlfriend
and regarding female travelers who stop by his gas station. Kudos for that.
The extras include the
trailer for the film, and a 6-minute Outtakes short, which is actually a
Blooper reel. These tend to be fun, and this one runs just long enough not to
get tiresome. There is also a full-length commentary track with the director, executive
producer Cory Grier (who has a small, recurring role in the film), and star
Barger; thankfully, they don’t talk over each other and are respectful. I love
when that happens. The conversation between them deals mostly with anecdotal and
cursory information about the film, such as what the shoot was like, set locations,
and stories about the actors; there is little philosophical discussions on what
the film means, or plot points. That’s okay, because as it is, it certainly kept
the interest up.
While there are issues
with the some of the points in the film, this is a nicely put-together release,
with fine editing, lighting, and all those other technical bits. This is Staton’s
third film and first feature, and she shows a lot of promise, which I hope I
get to enjoy for years and features to come.
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