Town Red was awarded with Best in Show at the Grand Rapids Film Festival and has recently been accepted into the very prestigious Cannes Film Festival. When I watched Town Red (watched it a few times actually) I quickly discovered that the team behind this project meant business, and that they allowed their project to have huge potential for expansion of their idea. Town Red was written and directed by Ryan Geiger, who also plays Patrick, the main protagonist. This film revolves around a sleepy Kentucky town that undergoes a zombie outbreak in 1951. We follow Patrick over the course of a year as his life becomes less and less familiar and he becomes more and more oblivious to reality. What he used to hold so near and dear to his heart has quickly been replaced with blind emotionless complacency. This newly discovered lack of drive lends itself to an almost psychotic behavior in our hero and consequently, near death experience. As the world around him is crumbling down, he slowly becomes less and less human. It is as though Patrick is simply going through life on cruise control with little awareness or care to most situations, which is evident in many of the scenes, as his emotions are absent or inappropriate. PTSD anyone?
Patrick "suffers" from the best feature this short has to offer: flashbacks. Multiple times we see Patrick's face go blank then a sudden scene change, and we realize that we are seeing Patrick from his own memory engaging in numerous day-to-day happenings. This type of match on action really drives home Patrick's "paralyses" and gives the viewer more information into his past. The visuals of these memories paired with the sounds blend beautifully back into the present day altercations. One thing is for sure, Patrick is not okay.
Town Red brought together many aspects which helped beautify this experience.
1. The cinematics and the locations were pretty damn good. Many powerful sequences and images filling the one year gap between the opening scene and Patrick's downward spiral towards denial.
2. As previously mentioned, the flashbacks were an ingenious essential story-telling tool utilized to near perfection.
3. The locations were beautiful and appropriate for the characters and story.
4. The score accompanying the montage-like cinematics for the missing year was hauntingly good. Sad and scary song, but surprisingly up-lifting and spirited.
5. The make-up and special effects were above par for most Indy films I've seen, took me back a little to the days of the Evil Dead...these guys did their homework. Even their poster resembles the iconic Evil Dead Franchise.
Me likey
Now....
As we all know, when creating any project odds are not every aspect will be golden. Sometimes/many-times it's the little things which cause the most grief. Things that easily get overlooked, whether it's from a lack of knowledge in that particular category, or it falls victim to a minimal budget.
1. Some of the dialogue seemed forced, unnatural.
2. Some of the dialogue was a little cliche, i.e. Jeffrey saying he was cold as he bled out on the floor of the garage.
3. I felt the adolescences in the first scene seemed a little too comfortable with the fact they were robbing a dead lady whom they both knew. I would think they would be a little less at ease about that. The only thing which could explain this is that more time had passed from the initial outbreak to this point in time, allowing these kids to become more familiar with the sight of friends and family dying; this was not specified.
4. I wasn't on-board with how quickly and easily Patrick deduced Neil's master plan of killing both he and Jeffrey and stealing a car. I think that was a little rushed, and with the expansion of this story could easily be explained.
5. I did say how I liked the special effects, this is true. I liked it all, I felt however, that the gunshots seemed muffled; again something easily fixable. When a rifle or pistol is shot in the woods, or especially inside the garage, the echo would be horrible, unbearable. All of the shots were softened and flat sounding.
6. This last point is such a minor issue that most people will never catch it. This issue is about the electrical receptacle's inside the garage by the bench vise. I know a thing or two about hardware and this stuck out to me. Such a minor detail, but since these type of outlets weren't around in
the 50's, I thought I'd mention it. It would be like having a 1964
Impala in the film...minor I know.
All in all I think Town Red is an exceptional film, one with loads of potential. Town Red is a very interesting version of the "classic" zombie story. It's rather refreshing to see this story taking place in the past and not modern time, like Cowboys & Aliens. I would very much like to see this film expanded on and turned into a feature. It would be interesting to know what caused this particular outbreak, and see a slower progression of the characters break-downs.
Final Words: Large Popcorn
This film was good, it has huge potential and for such a minuscule budget, it succeeded in impressive ways: flash-back sequences, make-up, cinematography, location. The story would benefit from additional information, time and the expansion of the characters. Do yourselves a favor reader and watch Town Red when you get the chance, who knows, maybe the world has been introduced to the next Sam Raimi and Evil Dead franchise. If so...I'm in!
This film was good, it has huge potential and for such a minuscule budget, it succeeded in impressive ways: flash-back sequences, make-up, cinematography, location. The story would benefit from additional information, time and the expansion of the characters. Do yourselves a favor reader and watch Town Red when you get the chance, who knows, maybe the world has been introduced to the next Sam Raimi and Evil Dead franchise. If so...I'm in!
Until next time, happy viewing!
Review Rating based on popcorn sizes: small, medium, large, extra-large;
films worth skipping get snore...zzzzz
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