A
cabin with New Age healing powers? Right, good luck with that. Maybe the iron
oxide whatsit has restorative properties, but it’s not healing multiple stab
wounds anytime soon. This will not be the family retreat Casey Pollack intended,
but at least she gets a glimpse of the future in Brad Baruh’s Dead Night (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York.
Casey
Pollack was hoping a trip to the woo-woo cabin would have a beneficial effect
on her husband James’ cancer. In retrospect, the snow closed roads and dead
zone for cell service were definitely bad signs. However, things really got bad
when her husband carried in a woman he found half-frozen in the woods.
Her
name is Leslie Bison and she is quite a piece of work. Instead of expressing gratitude,
she says the weirdest, most inappropriate things—and then she starts killing
Pollack’s family. It is not really her idea. It is all part of a Faustian
bargain—albeit one that doesn’t seem to trouble Bison very much. However,
things get complicated when Casey turns out to be unexpectedly resourceful.
Alas, that will not stop the world from blaming her for the murders, as we can
see from a future true crime TV show interspersed throughout the film.
The
faux TV report on Pollack’s alleged murders is really pretty clever, but it
also sort of undermines the film. Basically, Baruh tells us what is going to
happen and then it does. The end. We might be jazz fans, but this is a case
where everyone could use a little syncopation.
Still,
there is one thing definitely going for the movie: Barbara Crampton, who is
pretty darned spectacular as the gleefully unhinged Bison. It is rather fun
watching her chew the scenery and hurl dismissive zingers at her victims.
Unfortunately, the film itself doesn’t go anywhere. This will be particularly
frustrating for real horror fans, because in addition to Crampton, it has AJ
Bowen playing James Pollack, Chase Williamson appearing in the 1960s prologue
that really doesn’t make much sense in the context of the full film, and Don Coscarelli
on-board as an executive producer. This film should be awesome, but it’s not.