Review: The Trees Have Eyes

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

The Trees Have Eyes (aka Dead Bounty)
Directed by Jordan Pacheco
Lock It Down Productions; Cyfuno Productions
75 minutes, 2020,
https://www.facebook.com/DeadBounty

There must be something in the water in the area between Boston, MA, and Providence, RI. The amount of cinema – especially genre films – is stunning. Directors Richard Griffin, Lenny Schwartz, Laura Pepper, Richard Chandler, and Alex DiVincenzo, among others, all come from this area, producing quality work. And let’s not forget Jordan Pacheco, who recently came out with the fun Blood Pi (2020; reviewed HERE, and available on TubiTV, etc.). 

Cate Carson and David Carpenter

We start off with five rough and tumble bail bondsmen/woman, also known as bounty hunters – four men and one woman – who scour out into the woods in search of their prey. They are an older gent, Henry (Timothy Patrick Quill), his son Junior (James Baker), Junior’s partner Hannah (Cate Carson), Colt (David Carpenter), and macho/toxic masculinity-embused Bosk (Tony Moran, the original adult Michael Myers in 1978’s Halloween).

They drive a car that has the slogan “It’s more fun if they run” and scratch marks for the numbers caught that is often used by prisoners in these kinds of films (four horizontal lines and one diagonal through them). They are searching for a(n alleged) murderer (and the only black member of the main cast), Darnel (Kevin O. Peterson).

Good mourning campters!

Sharing the woods with our hunters-select, are a group of really obnoxious youths who are camping out. This gaggle includes a lesbian couple, a straight couple, and two other women, including Clair (Alexandra Cipolla) who is the “flirty” one in the cheerleader outfit, Tucker (Johnny Sederquist in a somewhat cameo role), and the group is rounded out by one woman out for a nude nighttime swim. Most are sitting around the campfire, talking smack and one pretending to be “manly”: Randall (Alexander Gautheir, who starred in the comedic 2016 short “Trouser Snake”; reviewed HERE) is embarrassed that he was intimidated by the huge, gun carrying bounty hunters in front of his girlfriend, Samantha (Jacquelyn Fabian). Hell, I would have been terrified and not be ashamed of it…they were pointing guns). Anyway, considering the cheerleading duds, I’m guessing these over-agers are supposed to be in college. While this group is definitely more stereotypical of these films, it also increases the number of the future body count, so I’m okay with it.

It is obvious these groups are going to meet in other ways in the second act when the zombies start to attack. Yep, zombies. While they are the slow, stumbling Romero type (director Pacheco has stated that the 1978 version of Dawn of the Dead is his favorite zombie film, and rightfully so), they still manage to come out of freakin’ nowhere to kill and give a good jump scare or few. Once it starts, the attacks are relentless, which of course is part of the fun for the viewer, if not the characters.

Johnny Sederquist

The special makeup SFX looks great for a low budget release, thanks to a team led by Phil “Skippy” Adams, and including Eric Rodrigues, who graduated from The Tom Savini’s Special Makeup Effects School. When the carnage starts proper, the blood and gore flow generously.

Most of the characters, as I find to be true in films with large fodder casts, are not that likeable, other than Hannah and Colt, whom Cate and David, respectively, allow to show some empathy. Nearly everyone else is out for themselves, and that hubris often brings their downfall. And speaking of cameos, there is an enormously short one with Rhode Island stalwart actors Nathaniel Sylva and Jamie Lyn Bagley.

Tony Moran

There is a similar theme to Dog Soldiers (2002), as a group – including a military-style one – is lost in the woods and being hunted by blood-thirsty creatures, albeit zombies rather than werewolves. But the deadly end result is the same, except in this case, just because you kill a zombie does not mean you have killed the zombie. The undead are tricky that way.

Alexandra Cipolla

While this is certainly not a comedy per se, there are some giggle-worthy moments here and there, which are great fleeting tension breakers. Just what is the cause of this zombiemania? There’s a couple of guesses within the film, but it’s left open. Though a major lesson here seems to be that when the zombie apocalypse does occur, people are going to crash their cars if they drive on small roads, to make them easy pickings.

A nice aspect about this film is that when it reaches the point where it would probably end in most cases, that is just the start of the third act, as the survivors (won’t say who) end up in a farmhouse and gather more wood for the fire, or meat for the zombies, as it were. Pacheco has found some clever ways to keep the story and blood flowing, and it’s appreciated. Also, the last section really is the finest moments of a quite good picture overall. The blood red cherry on top of the gray skinned cake. And the ending looks like there could be more baking in the oven. Cut me up a slice.

The film is available on the likes of Amazon, Tubi and YouTube. As zombie films go, this one is worth checking out.