SOUTHBOUND
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: A powerful variation on the multi-story film.
SOUTHBOUND is five horrific stories, each of which fades
into the next. Some of the story types are familiar,
some new. All take place along or around a nearly empty
California highway without a number. Six writers, four
of whom direct the film, give us a well-made and weird
horror film. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
SOUTHBOUND opens in the middle of a story already in progress. Two
men splattered with blood are driving down an empty highway
apparently haunted by what look like black rags that seem to be
hanging from the sky. When we get a better look at them we see
that they are hellish demons who seemingly come out of the ground.
As we watch the story we suddenly realize that the characters have
changed and there was a smooth transition to the second film
without us realizing it. Soon it becomes clear that each story
will smoothly pass the baton to the story that follows it. One
story after another goes by, and most are creepy as all get-out.
There is little explained about the stories and somehow that makes
them all the scarier. One family eats unidentified and
unidentifiable meat that cause pairs of people to synchronize with
each other. Sometimes the ground cracks open for little reason
unless it is to create a passageway to Hell. Each story is
recognizable as a separate story only after it is over.
Some of the stories at least start in familiar territory. One has
three girls from a girl jazz band having a tire blowout on the
seemingly endless road that is common to all the stories. Just in
time they get an offer of a ride from some seemingly nice people.
That start has been done many times before, but where the story
goes is all SOUTHBOUND's own. Another story has a careless driver
knocking down a pedestrian and having to perform surgery on the
victim guided by a doctor on a phone connection. Things do not go
well.
Present in this film are many elements of different sub-genres of
the horror film. There is the supernatural; there is a monster;
there are demons; there is a house invasion; devil worshipers show
up. This film is a Whitman Sampler of sub-genres of the horror
film.
The same morbid atmosphere continues from story to story which is a
little surprising since there are different directors for each
story with Roxanne Benjamin, David Bruckner, Patrick Horvath, and
someone who chooses to be called "Radio Silence" each directing one
segment. Each but perhaps the last took a hand in writing the
film. Hanging over all the stories is a bizarre commentary by a
radio talk host played by Larry Fessenden.
This film is the great-grandchild of the old horror anthology films
(e.g. TALES FROM THE CRYPT) made by Amicus in the 1960s and 1970s).
But where Amicus created their horror by implication, SOUTHBOUND
goes straight for the throat (at times literally). It is strong
stuff and maybe these days a horror film has to be. I rate it a
low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.
Film Credits:
<
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4935334/combined>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/southbound/>
Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 2016 Mark R. Leeper
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