The Last Stop in Yuma County, on BluRay

If you grew up in the 1970s, you might remember a time when gas stations ran out of gas. With all the talk about reviving various price controls, we might just bring those bad old days back. For one “last chance” gas station, that reality is already here. Their re-supply track is running late, unnerving several dodgy characters who need to get out of town fast in Francis Galluppi’s The Last Stop in Yuma County, which releases today on BluRay.

This is a thriller in the tradition of The Petrified Forest, but the characters probably feel like they are stuck in Sartre play. Vernon’s filling station is out of gas, so his potential customers must wait for the truck to arrive in Charlotte’s diner, where the air-conditioning is on the fritz. The nebbish traveling salesman hawking knock-off Ginsu knives recognizes Travis and Beau match the description of wanted bank-robbers, which is no coincidence.

Essentially, the two fugitives hold them hostage, but they all try to act normal for all the other customers coming into the diner, including Deputy Gavin. Charlotte tries to send a warning through him to the Sheriff, her husband Charlie, but poor Gavin is an exceedingly dim bulb.

Yuma County is a reasonably successful desert noir, mainly due to its colorful characters and the experienced ensemble of genre-friendly thesps portraying them. On the other hand, the execution and pacing are somewhat uneven. After fifty-some-minutes of ever-so deliberately slow-building, Galluppi seems to say the heck with it and unleashes total bedlam.

Regardless, Richard Brake is appropriately sinister as Beau, the brains of the two-armed robber-operation. Sometimes, Jim Cummings takes over-the-top a bit too far, but he finds the right level of twitchiness for the knife salesman. The great Barbara Crampton also gets a lot of laughs in her slightly larger-than-cameo appearances as the Sheriff’s receptionist, Virginia.

Trim Season, Starring Jane Badler

Look, marijuana is bad for you. That shouldn’t be a controversial thing to say. There are still a lot of valid reasons for legalization, but New York City’s inability to close all the unregulated pot shops that have sprung up greatly undermines much of that logic. In addition, some of the suppliers engage in witchcraft and bloody sacrifices. At least that is true of the Northern California farm in Ariel Vida’s Trim Season, which opens today in theaters.

Emma just got fired and her landlord is throwing her out, so her bestie Julia took her out drinking. They do not really like their exponentially more successful acquaintance Pua, but when her boyfriend (or whatever) James pitches a two-week temp gig trimming marijuana buds, they are receptive, because they need the bread.

Of course, even if you hadn’t seen the grisly prologue, anyone can tell sleazy James acts suspiciously like a recruiter for a human trafficking ring. Naturally, they are a bit put off by the armed men patrolling the work-site, but what did they expect? This is literally the drug business. However, the boss, Mona, is something else entirely.

Apparently, she is some kind of witch, who has the power to kill remotely though telekinetic powers, which she fuels through a potential lethal strand of super-weed. It can kill those who are not prepared for it, like the annoying co-worker who steals some of Mona’s stash. Frankly, it looks like Nancy Reagan was right all along. Just say no kids.

You should say “no” to this movie too. The sluggish pace suggests way too many of the “props” were used for real during the production. The pronoun-announcing trimmers are also too annoying to care too much about. Obviously, Emma is the film’s clear final survivor candidate, but her professional victimhood is tiresome right from the start. Frankly, only the energy of Juliette Kenn De Balinthazy registers to any extent as Lex, whose character is largely defined by her inability to feel physical pain (which could very well come in handy).

Cinequest ’20: Homewrecker

Fortysomething Linda is the sort of person who can even make 1980’s nostalgia creepy. It is because she is completely unhinged, in jealous and possessive ways. She has decided to befriend Michelle, a not particularly social interior designer in her early thirties, even if it kills the younger woman. It does not pay to be nice in Zach Gayne’s Homewrecker, which screens during this year’s Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival.

Linda just happened to join Michelle’s workout class and coincidentally stopped by her favorite coffee shop, where she introduces herself. She is unusually forward and more than a little bit annoying, but Michelle does not want to seem rude, so she humors the woman. Reluctantly, she agrees to give Linda’s home a professional look-over, but that will be a mistake. Once she is inside, Linda will not let her go. At first, she uses techniques of guilt and manipulation to convince her to stay, but eventually she resorts to more violent methods.

Frankly, Linda is not so very different from Annie Wilkes in Misery, but Michelle is a much more resourceful captive. Ironically, the early scenes of social awkwardness are much more uncomfortable to watch than the subsequent brawls and beatdowns. Gayne unleashes some brutal mayhem, but it steeped in bracing dark humor, very much in the Tarantino tradition.

There is also some brilliant art design work from Andrew Barr & Tim Reid, who crafted the look of “Party Hunks,” a retro-80’s Sweet Valley High-esque VHS-boardgame Linda makes Michelle play. It is the sort of memorable in-film game that ranks with the ones seen in Beyond the Gates and Into the Dark: Uncanny Annie.

Midnighters: Happy New Year

Hasn’t anyone ever seen I Know What You Did Last Summer? If you hit a sketchy dude by the side of the road, just call the cops. It will be so much easier that way in the long run. Lindsey and Jeff Pittman do not do that, but they have some good excuses. Like, maybe it was self-defense and they didn’t even know it. Things get complicated quickly in Julius Ramsay’s Midnighters (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Jeff Pittman should have made a New Year’s resolution to get a job, or at least not mow people down when his blood alcohol is over the limit. Since he and his wife Lindsey are already under a lot of stress, they agree to temporarily remove the body from the accident scene that they tidy up as best they can, with the intention of returning to face the music once they have sobered up. It is a swell plan that can’t fail, until they notice the rather thuggish looking man had their address in his pocket. If he was coming to do them ill, it stands to reason, there will be more like him coming in his stead.

Jeff Pittman blames his sister in-law Hannah, which both women resent, even though he is more right than wrong. She had moved back in with the couple after the death of her well-heeled older lover, doing their already strained marriage no favors. It turns out, the late boyfriend was even more mobbed up than she realized. As further visitors turn up, both Jeff and Hannah will try to turn Lindsey against each other, as their New Year turns into A Simple Plan.

Midnighters has some devious twists and turns, but like the Sam Raimi film, it reflects a sense of working class economic malaise. Eighteen grand is not too small a sum to kill someone for in the Pittmans’ world. This is indeed hardscrabble New England, with the emphasis on hard.

Based on her knock-out work in Starry Eyes and Tales of Halloween, Alex Essoe is poised to join the ranks of today’s pseudo rep company of hip horror movie specialists, but she is surprisingly restrained and withdrawn as Lindsey Pittman. In contrast, Dylan McTee brings plenty of cutting attitude and intensity as Jeff. However, Perla Haney-Jardine is just a pill but that is apparently how Ramsay and his screenwriter brother Alston intended her to be.

Cinematographer Alexander Alexandrov makes it all look dark and sinister, in a “wicked” New England kind of way. This is a tense, gritty, and tightly executed film that is too grounded to be horror, but definitely shares some of the stylistic elements. Recommended for fans of one-darned-thing-after-another thrillers, Midnighters opens this Friday (3/2) in New York, at the IFC Center.