Red River
Year: 2011
Director: Jacob Ennis
Stars: Dave Hanely, Dustin Roe, Cecilla Waller
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Bloody Earth Films
Running Time: 78 Mins
“Red River” is the second film from Writer/Director Jacob Ennis. He directed the entertaining horror film, “Stash” back in 2009, which last year got a national DVD release. His latest horror film is sort of a homage to the era of grindhouse horror films of the 1970’s that takes places in the backwoods of Kentucky.
“Red River focuses on Roland Thatcher (Dave Hanely) a business man, who is good family that’s very religious and doesn’t like strangers. So when a group of kids come out to the mountain where Thatcher lives, he decides to make their lives a living hell by kidnapping them and touring them. All this leads to a lot of blood shedding and dismembered. But unknown to him, a reporter (Cecilla Waller) is inching closer to the truth and the dark and horrifying secrets that he wants no one to know. She poses a threat, as the truth about Roland and his family may finally come to light in this ultra-violent film
Going into “Red River, I was curious to see if this was going to a good movie, considering that I had the feeling that it was going to be just primarily a gore film. To my surprise, this wasn’t a fun gore film, but a very effective and shocking one.
This was one very disturbing film. I would go to say that this was more disturbing than Jacob Ennis’ last film. One of the things that makes “Red River” horrifying, the way that Ennis handles all the disturbing elements. I liked, how he directs the death scenes. They’re handled in a way that is used to make every shocking. This is one of the few times that I don’t mine buckets of blood being spilled, because its adding the disturbing aspects of the story. It makes the gore effective and makes you want to turn away from the screen. Another thing that makes the direction good, Ennis does a very good job handling the performances. The performances are handled very well. I liked how, Ennis gets his actors and actresses to be interested with the material. It get you invested to the story, which is needed for a micro budget to work. It makes the film look better and your not worried and poking fun about how much the film cost to make.
There’s also a cool title sequence in the beginning of the film, which I have to mention. It one of the best ones that I’ve seen in a while. I liked how Ennis created the title sequence, as it feels like it came out of a lost seventies grindhouse film. It grabs your attention. It’s those things that gets your viewer interested in the film. It defiantly something that grindhouse lovers would love.
I also thought, Ennis’ screenplay was more creative than “Stash”. One of the things that makes this film creative was the way that he creates the main villain of the story, Roland Thatcher. I liked how make him very deranged in his movement and his actions. It makes the story effective, as you’re terrified of this character. Ennis also does a good job specifying how the character talks and acts. It makes the villain very terrifying and demented like to the viewer. The other thing that I liked about the screenplay, the way the subplots were handled. I liked, how each of them were very different from one another. The first subplot, you have the traditional group of kids going into the woods having sex and fun in the woods, then getting killed off by the villain. Even though it tiring, you need that to get the horror fan interested. But it works very well, as the whole subplot comes off as a seventies grindhouse film than the traditional film that your used to seeing. The second subplot, you have this reporter working a news about the disappearances in the woods. I liked, how it reminds me of “The Blair Witch Project” a little bit with the reporter interviewing people about the disappearances. That’s handled very well, as it provides backstory to the mysterious killings without hurting the flow of the film. All and all, this is a very well thought out story.
“Red River” is a shocking and gory film that make you so shocked at the level of violence, you might be afraid to go into the woods.
Review Rating: Four Stars.
“Red River focuses on Roland Thatcher (Dave Hanely) a business man, who is good family that’s very religious and doesn’t like strangers. So when a group of kids come out to the mountain where Thatcher lives, he decides to make their lives a living hell by kidnapping them and touring them. All this leads to a lot of blood shedding and dismembered. But unknown to him, a reporter (Cecilla Waller) is inching closer to the truth and the dark and horrifying secrets that he wants no one to know. She poses a threat, as the truth about Roland and his family may finally come to light in this ultra-violent film
Going into “Red River, I was curious to see if this was going to a good movie, considering that I had the feeling that it was going to be just primarily a gore film. To my surprise, this wasn’t a fun gore film, but a very effective and shocking one.
This was one very disturbing film. I would go to say that this was more disturbing than Jacob Ennis’ last film. One of the things that makes “Red River” horrifying, the way that Ennis handles all the disturbing elements. I liked, how he directs the death scenes. They’re handled in a way that is used to make every shocking. This is one of the few times that I don’t mine buckets of blood being spilled, because its adding the disturbing aspects of the story. It makes the gore effective and makes you want to turn away from the screen. Another thing that makes the direction good, Ennis does a very good job handling the performances. The performances are handled very well. I liked how, Ennis gets his actors and actresses to be interested with the material. It get you invested to the story, which is needed for a micro budget to work. It makes the film look better and your not worried and poking fun about how much the film cost to make.
There’s also a cool title sequence in the beginning of the film, which I have to mention. It one of the best ones that I’ve seen in a while. I liked how Ennis created the title sequence, as it feels like it came out of a lost seventies grindhouse film. It grabs your attention. It’s those things that gets your viewer interested in the film. It defiantly something that grindhouse lovers would love.
I also thought, Ennis’ screenplay was more creative than “Stash”. One of the things that makes this film creative was the way that he creates the main villain of the story, Roland Thatcher. I liked how make him very deranged in his movement and his actions. It makes the story effective, as you’re terrified of this character. Ennis also does a good job specifying how the character talks and acts. It makes the villain very terrifying and demented like to the viewer. The other thing that I liked about the screenplay, the way the subplots were handled. I liked, how each of them were very different from one another. The first subplot, you have the traditional group of kids going into the woods having sex and fun in the woods, then getting killed off by the villain. Even though it tiring, you need that to get the horror fan interested. But it works very well, as the whole subplot comes off as a seventies grindhouse film than the traditional film that your used to seeing. The second subplot, you have this reporter working a news about the disappearances in the woods. I liked, how it reminds me of “The Blair Witch Project” a little bit with the reporter interviewing people about the disappearances. That’s handled very well, as it provides backstory to the mysterious killings without hurting the flow of the film. All and all, this is a very well thought out story.
“Red River” is a shocking and gory film that make you so shocked at the level of violence, you might be afraid to go into the woods.
Review Rating: Four Stars.
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