31 Days of Halloween, Day 19- YellowBrickRoad (2010)

Directed By: Jesse Holland & Andy Mitton

Top 8 Cast: Anessa Ramsey, Clark Freeman, Laura Heisler, Michael Laurino, Alex Draper, Sam Elmore, Cassidy Freeman, Tara Giordano-Dean

Plot: In 1940, 572 people mysteriously walk into the woods. Only one is ever seen from again and he’s insane. 70 years later, and the government has finally declassified the records. Which is great, because Teddy Barnes wants answers. Er, he wants to sell a book about it, same thing right? When he assembles a crackerjack team of explorers they set out to walk the trail. What answers await them? And what dark fates will befall them?

Response: The movies and hiking and drug trips and death. Escape. Dudes big dicking over who can build a bigger fire. Character’s doing character schtick. Is there a portal to Guam in New Hampshire? The wizard is God. God is a displaced Kansan who came here via hot air balloon. He can still grant wishes though. The scarecrow is a corpse. The lion, witch, and woodsman aren’t in the picture. Dorothy’s not in the picture. The woods are vast.

Quick Thoughts: While I haven’t liked every movie I’ve been watching for this project this was the first one that I struggled to even appreciate. Total slog to get through mostly due to character’s talking and acting more like characters than people and a near utter lack of style. In the beginning you get some bureaucracy horror that feels like a final happy ending to Kafka’s The Castle. Teddy finally got his records. K finally got admitted. From there we segue into weirdo TV territory. Mysteries pile and strange things happen à la Lost or The OA. I was left feeling like the movie was reminding me of a lot of other, better, more mind-blowing things. I’ve read folks say it’s cosmic horror. Felt a lot like a Blair Witch retread. Yr mileage might vary based on how spooky you find 1940’s show tunes. Definitely in the glitch and scream school and looks like a SyFy channel flick. But when I finally finished it I saw what it was doing a little better. It’s mostly about madness, violence and cruelty and how those things are dangerously close to us. Ultimately pretty upsetting. The filmmaker it most reminds me of, in its Twilight Zone high-conceptness, its characters acting unrealistically, and its deceptive means of getting under your skin, is M Night Shymalan. I still think he’s better though. More artful. More distressing. And more far out.

With noting the response is almost equally split. Most folks hate the “twist” but there’s a vocal camp of supporters. I was terrified by the trailer six years ago or so which is why it had been on my list. I think certain horror fans really dig it.

Second Opinions:

“I guess I like this movie more than I'm ready to fully admit…On a base level, I still think horror films are like campfire stories and I'm not sure you have to like every sentence the storyteller utters to be taken to the place that you need to go.”- unkle lancifer, Kinder Trauma

“Despite us tagging along the trail for days, we feel closer to the landscape than to the characters.” - Ethan Gilsdorf, Boston Globe

“After hundreds of horror films, YellowBrickRoad is the first film to make me feel genuine fear”- REDACTED statement from an unknown poster on a horror subreddit

Score:

Autumn Vibes: 1/5

Scares & Chills: 4/5

Cinematic & Cultural Importance: 0/5

Monster Action: 1/5