We
do not read short story writer Richard Connell very much anymore, except for
his constantly anthologized “The Most Dangerous Game.” Years after the Joel
McCrea-Irving Pichel adaptation, exploitation filmmakers keep “paying homage.”
The latest is not the greatest, but midnight movie fans have certainly seen
worse than Christopher Denham’s Preservation,
which screens during the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.
For
reasons that escape us, Mike Neary has organized a nostalgic hunting trip with his
neglected (and secretly pregnant) wife Wit and his surly brother Sean, who has
just been discharged from the military under mysterious circumstances. He seems
a little tense. His disposition will not improve when their gear is stolen.
Wisely, brother Mike chose an abandoned state park for sentimental reasons, so
with their cell phones gone, the three will be totally on their own.
Frankly,
the first two acts rather try a viewers’ patience. Here is a survival tip: if a
gang of psycho hunters are stalking you, give them that extra whack if you ever
get the drop on one of them. Instead, the Nearys are constantly letting them
pop back up, with dire consequences.
However,
when the hunted finally becomes the proper hunter, Preservation starts to deliver the sort of sleazy vicarious payback
we went in looking for. For a good portion of the film, the hunters have no
villainous personality because of the admittedly creepy masks they wear. Yet,
when we finally come to understand who they are, it is rather unsettling, offering
an unexpected commentary on our increasingly desensitized nature.
Wrenn
Schmidt is pretty convincing as the reluctant action heroine, while Pablo
Schreiber (Liev’s half-brother) nicely skirts the line between intense and kind
of crazy as Sean Neary. In contrast, Aaron Staton seems rather pale vanilla in
comparison.
