Blue Ruin is a "revenge thriller," which is a term that usually brings to mind one sort of movie... and it's often a pretty simplistic one. A person (usually a man) is wronged in some horribly tragic and violent fashion and then goes out to wreak all sorts of vengeance while the audience cheers along like Pavlov's dogs knew how to drool in front of food. I'm not making any personal judgments here; bloodlust, revenge, and a capacity for horrific violence are part of the human condition, so there's certainly nothing wrong with a simplistic story about a victim who eventually lashes back against his or her oppressors. It's just a whole lot better when a group of filmmakers use the term "revenge thriller" as a vague idea, and then cook up a powerful and compelling movie that's actually "about" the nature of revenge. Getting an audience outraged is easy; placating them with lots of cathartic violence is even easier. But putting together something like Blue Ruin takes a lot of serious care, craftsmanship, and restraint. That last adjective is the most intriguing one, because while Blue Ruin takes a decidedly more cerebral and methodical approach to an oft-told tale, it also does it in a way that heightens suspense and hits you hard with -- restraint.
Blue Ruin opens with a homeless man who is living out of his car. We can tell from the outset that he's a sad and fractured man, but not a feral or maniacal one. Dwight (Macon Blair) seems lost, lonely, and almost tangibly heartbroken about something. We learn through some early and very clever exposition that Dwight's parents had been murdered several years earlier, but when he learns of their killer's parole from prison, our long-suffering anti-hero kicks into action: he's going to kill the repulsive Carl Cleland, because he deserves to be killed.
To say much more would rob the film of its simple and logical -- yet still entirely fascinating -- plot threads, but it's safe to say that Dwight manages to earn some hard-fought revenge, and that's when things go from bad to worse. And boy do things get really ugly for Dwight before Blue Ruin breezes through its dark story and closes with some smart, simple, and worthwhile points. Revenge often breeds more revenge; the only end to a cycle of violence is when there's only one person left alive; and once you've become a killer, nothing you do can ever change the fact that you're a killer.
This is a startlingly accomplished indie thriller from a writer/director who is only on his second feature. Jeremy Saulnier once directed the cheap, scrappy, amusing 2007 indie called Murder Party, and while that one stands up as goofy horror fun, Blue Ruin is an overwhelming improvement in every department of filmmaking you can think of. Macon Blair's lead performance is nothing short of stunning, truth be told, and it's a credit to the actor's skill that he gives the audience so much emotion with only a bare minimum of dialogue. (Mr. Saulnier's screenplay is nothing if not efficient.) The score is ominous, the cinematography is unflinchingly powerful, the editing style provides a simple story with a forward momentum that could teach the Hollywood boys a couple of things about keeping an audience captivated, and the supporting cast is simply great. (Devin Ratray, as Dwight's old and estranged school buddy, is an oasis of wit and warmth in an otherwise cold and frequently upsetting film.)
If you're looking for some simple "revenge thriller" payoffs, Blue Ruin has more than a handful of those to share -- but it also has a lot of insightful things to say about justice, vengeance, morality, responsibility, and loyalty. This is a quiet, confident, and surprisingly excellent little thriller, and it cements my theory that Jeremy Saulnier is now a filmmaking force to be reckoned with. If his sophomore effort is this strong, his third feature will really blow some doors down.
Dexter Episode 812
The scrappy, super-violent, and consistently amusing new sci-fi horror film called Almost Famous is certainly a short, sharp shock of indie-style scares and splatter, but here's what impresses me the most about the flick: it virtually reeks of love for the finest in 1980s horror cinema, yet it was written and directed by a 25-year-old guy! That's not fair! Homages to movies like Xtro (1983) should only be made by people who were actually alive in the 1980s! Who does this Joe Begos think he is?
No matter what the gimmick is that’s being employed, that’s precisely what these things are; gimmicks. Much like 3D movies, the idea is to pull potential visitors in by offering up something unique and special, which they simply won’t be able to let the Halloween season slip by without experiencing. And when it comes to gimmicks, nobody is doing it more differently this year than Pennsylvania’s Shocktoberfest.
Thirty-six years is a long time to go missing. It’s a long time to let ghosts accumulate, real and imagined. And it’s a long time to follow up on one of the most well-known and well-regarded novels – horror or otherwise – of the twentieth century.
You think you know what to expect from Ti West by now. Like many horror movie nutcases, you saw The Innkeepers and/or House of the Devil, and maybe you went back and dug up The Roost and Trigger Man. Hell, you could have even given Cabin Fever 2 a fair shot. (Big mistake.) But if you think you know all of Ti West's tricks, well, prepare to be pleasantly surprised -- because the man's latest indie chiller may just be his darkest, deepest, and freakiest feature so far. It's called The Sacrament, it's one of those new-fangled "found footage" presentations, and it's another shining example of how you can cook up a truly haunting piece of horror with only a handful of cameras, a few good actors, a realistically creepy premise, and some subtle but obvious craftsmanship behind the camera.
Sleepy Hollow Episode 102