Dig Two Graves: They Hold Grudges in These Parts

Evidently, if you go south enough in downstate Illinois (bootlegger country) it starts to look downright Southern. In this rural 1970s community, adherence to superstition far exceeds job creation. Violence is rooted in the very land and Sheriff Waterhouse helped plant the bloody seeds. Consequently, he will have to face up to his karma in Hunter Adams’ Dig Two Graves (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Jake Mather made the right decision when she declined to dive from a natural scenic overlook into the rocky waters below, with her beloved older brother Sean. However, she still inevitably blames herself for his resulting watery demise—or rather his presumptive demise. There are so many caverns and ledges in that watering hole, his body will probably never be found.

Unfortunately, a trio of brothers will exploit her uncertainty and guilt, as part of a scheme targeting her grandfather, craggy, crotchety Sheriff Waterhouse. As members of a demonic snake worshipping cult, they appear to possess supernatural powers. They will offer Mather a Faustian bargain: Sean’s resurrection in exchange for the life of Willie Proctor, the bullied grandson of Waterhouse’s predecessor and former boss, with whom he is not on good terms.

For the most part, Two Graves seems to be a horror movie, but it becomes much more ambiguous during the third act. Regardless, there is nothing more sinister in Adams’ film than the past. It also has a strong sense of place. Many viewers will mistake the Southern Illinois setting for Appalachia, but they are really not so far wrong. The point is, this is a community where people know some pretty twisted secrets about their neighbors.

Two Grave has another major claim to coolness: the great Ted Levine (the other serial killer in Silence of the Lambs) taking care of business as Waterhouse. He brings the attitude, swaggering and glowering like a junkyard dog, but he also develops a rather endearing rapport with his granddaughter Jake (played with unflagging earnestness by Samantha Isler).

As mean old Proctor, Danny Goldring goes toe-to-toe with Levine, chewing the scenery and clearly enjoying his despicable villainy. To be honest, he and Levine look like they just have baking flour caked on their faces during their frequent flashbacks scenes (jumping back thirty years), but they still strut and snarl like old pros. If you need any more genre credentials on top of all that, keep in mind the joint is executive produced by Larry Fessenden.

Adams certainly gives us a macabre portrayal of hill-and-hollow country, but he never shows contempt for his hardscrabble characters. In fact, he respects them for being survivors, even the bad guys. Recommended for fans of horror and dark suspense, Dig Two Graves opens this Friday (3/24) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

Banshee Chapter: Lovecraftian Fear and Loathing

This film probably could not have been made while Hunter S. Thompson was alive. As a gun nut with a taste for experimental drugs and paranoid politics, anti-hero Thomas Blackburn is conspicuously modeled on the gonzo journalist.  Thompson might have issued a shotgun rebuttal or he might have been amused by it all.  In fact, Blackburn is by far the best thing going for Blair Erickson’s murky conspiracy horror movie, Banshee Chapter (trailer here), which opens this Friday in select cities.

For the sake of his gonzo-ish book, James Hirsch plans to sample an industrial form of MDMA used in the CIA’s ill-conceived MK-ULTRA mind control experiments.  It is all for the sake of journalism, mind you.  Long story short: bad trip.  After Hirsch mysteriously disappears, leaving behind only some expository video tapes, his former ambiguous college friend Anne Roland sets out to track him down.

The synthesized drug was supplied to Hirsch by “Friends in Colorado,” which is a transparent alias for Blackburn.  When Roland tracks down the anti-social novelist, he tricks her into partaking some of his associate’s freshest batch.  That also leads to a bad trip—of supernatural dimensions.  In fact, Banshee is actually based on H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “From Beyond,” which we can glean because Blackburn helpfully takes time out to tell the tale to Roland.

Veteran character actor Ted Levine (recognizable from Silence of the Lambs and about a jillion others films and shows) is frankly kind of awesome as Blackburn.  Listening to him snarl and snark is a blast.  As an added bonus, Katia Winter’s Roland is a reasonably intelligent and forceful genre protagonist. Unfortunately, it takes forever to get the two together. 

Overly determined to establish Banshee’s inspired-by-real-events bonafides, Erickson shows us clip after clip of archival press conferences and congressional hearings, as well as his found footage dramatizations of MK-ULTRA experiments gone wrong.  As a result, the first third of the film has the feel of a cheesy old Syfy Channel special.

Of course, once the narrative finally starts it makes no sense whatsoever.  Somehow the CIA “Numbers Stations” are bafflingly involved in the cosmic skullduggery, but the logic is sketchy.  About all that’s missing are Area 51 and the Grassy Knoll. Clearly, Erickson has more talent for dialogue than plot development.  Levine chews on some great lines, but when Banshee ends, viewers will be wondering what that was all about. Genre fans will probably get a kick out of Blackburn on Netflix, but there’s not enough there there to justify theatrical ticket prices.  For diehard Lovecraftian conspiracy junkies, it opens tomorrow (1/10) in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinema (and has already released on VOD).