Review: Blight

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2022
Images from the Interne

Blight
Directed by Jeff Van Gerwen
Strange Door Films
75 minutes, 2022
www.facebook.com/BlightFilm

When starting out as a filmmaker, as this is Van Gerwen’s debut feature after a music video for Joystick and a few shorts, the style he employs makes total sense. Blight is essentially broken into three intermingled parts.

To start, there is the found footage type of style where a gaggle of seven twenty-something friends get together to go camping on the subtext of hopefully seeing aliens because there is to be a solar eclipse. The second, in spurts, is that same scary night and whatever happened then to members of the group. Then the third, and main body of the story, is a coming home party for Logan (Ashley van Kirk), who had mysteriously disappeared during the camping trip for a while, spent a year in an asylum, and has now come back as a shell of her former outward self. This section is not found footage per se, but it is obviously done on a hand-held camera.

Our initial grouping is: Logan and her boyfriend and the person doing the found footage filming, Luke (Joel Crumbley). The obnoxious self-leader of the group is Mark (Tripp Karrh), whose girlfriend is Tara (Kalee Griffin). Then there is Harrison (Kristin Calhoun), whose musician boyfriend is Tien (Han-Sam Jung). The seventh-wheel to start is Harper (Erika Ramirez).

Ashley van Kirk

This group is loud, obnoxious, and full of themselves, but they are also curious about what happened to Logan, who is reticent to disclose both the events of that night, and what has been going on since. And when she gets upset, things begin to happen, like lights flickering and the house shaking, for a start. I was amused when Mark asks “Was there a launch?” This wasn’t really explained, but I knew what he meant because, according to IMDB, it was filmed at Cocoa Beach, FL (does Jeannie and Major Nelson live nearby?).

To be honest, at first, I was a bit dismayed by the whole found footage part, and even the welcome home party dragged through a game called “Mafia,” but then it started to pick up nicely into the second act, until being really taut and suspenseful for the third act. So, despite the slow start, it really revved up by the half-way point. Being a relatively short film, that isn’t too long a wait.

Most of the cast are relatively new to film, but they all do a good job, especially considering that most of the dialogue is ad libbed. The range of emotions is wide, and they all certainly hold their own. That helps the film enormously.

Joel Crumbley

I have always wondered why on found footage releases, the camera keeps cutting out with digital noise. Mine has never done that. Is it supposed to be an indicator of its own style? As the director has stated, the film was shot over a 4-night and single afternoon period, with only 20 minutes of dialogue pre-determined. It was finished as the 2020 COVID lockdown began. Being locked in your house is a good way to get through post-production (every cloud…).

This is part social construct between these friends, part mystery, part horror. There are a couple of really nice red herrings leading to a thrilling tie-up that may not be what one is expecting; I saw it coming, though, but it did not hamper my enjoyment of the second half.

The film is available for free on TubiTV.

IMBD Listing HERE 

Review: Woodland Grey

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

Woodland Grey
Directed by Adam Reider
Spectropia Pictures; Franky Films; Vibe Check Entertainment; Filmoption International
90 minutes, 2021
www.spectropiapictures.com
www.facebook.com/woodlandgrey

Well, at the start – both in description and at the beginning of the film – I would not necessarily call this a cabin in the woods film, more like a trailer in the woods, a la Into the Wild (2007).

Deep in the wilderness, William (Ryan Blakely, who was a semi-regular in “Orphan Black” among many other Canadian shows) lives alone, kinda-sorta, trapping, reading, and keeping to himself.

And then there is the shed. Did I mention the shed? The shed is a small structure in the back that resembles more of an outhouse than a place for tools. It is chained and locked, and there is someone – or something – alive in there that William takes care of, but of which he is also afraid. He feeds it, and it lets him be.

Jenny Raven, Ryan Blakely

This all changes when a wounded hiker, Emily (Jenny Raven, who recently was Gwen on “Kim’s Convenience”), shows up unconscious in his realm. He takes her to chateau trailer, and tends to her. It’s her word we first hear, 12 minutes into the film (though the word she seems to love the most is the f-bomb). And she seems to have no editor in her brain, she just talks, which drives William a bit nuts, for a while. Imagine not hearing another voice for an extended time, then suddenly there is all this cluttery monologue. It’s a common formula: a man and a woman that starts off as antagonists usually end up as comrades against a common enemy, friends or even lovers somewhere down the line.

Art Hindle

The film intertwines between the present and flashbacks to explain the events leading up to the present, including one involving Emily’s grandfather Moses (a nice cameo by Art Hindle, the male lead in Cronenberg’s 1979 The Brood, apologies to Oliver Reed), who like his namesake, is there to help lead her out of the wilderness. Actually, all their appellations are appropriate. The name Emily means “wily,” as she tries to figure out her situation, and William’s is “warrior,” fighting against, well… William gets his flashback as well, and what led him to a life as a hermit guardian.

Then there is the shed. Remember the shed? While the freedom of whatever the entity is restricted by the shed, it also captures the freedom of its caretaker, while providing its guardian some means to survive. Borrowing a bit from “The Twilight Zone’s” 1960 episode ”The Howling Man,” Emily is convinced that what she has seen in the shed is reality. But like the expression says, “The map is not the territory,” and this is a prime example of that. Emily obviously, in good nature, opens up the shed and believes she’s helping someone, but as I said about the map, it does not correspond with the territory, or things are not always as they appear.

This ever-changing territory becomes maddening for our two explorers, as they start seeing things, such as people and objects from the past. To survive, they need to work together (see? comrades).

It’s a very small film in that the locations are minimal and the cast is quite small, which is just perfect for filming during a pandemic. How much more socially distanced can you get than the middle of a forest? And there’s no one to sweep it.

I do believe this is supposed to be taking place somewhere in Upstate New York, though it is filmed in Canada, as is its production home. It is also the first full-length feature for director Adam Reider, who shows he has the mettle to release a solid film. The fact that the production was hit by horrendous weather during the shooting, as can be seen in the footage, it all works with the rugged environment in which it was constructed.

While I would not put this as a boo-scary film (unless you are agoraphobic or have xylophobia), there is definitely a well-defined level of angst and tension, in a The Thing (1983) what-is-real-and-what-is-not-real kind of way, which is always fun. It’s more a spooky thriller. Whether you predict the ending or not, it is an ever-building pressure that is worth the wait.

Now, let’s all go camping, whatcha say?!