Insomnia Productions (II),
Bruce Davison, Randall Batinkoff, Trevor Morgan, Brooke Peoples, Hallock Beals, Lauren Storm, Art Fox, Bill J. Stevens, Maggie Henry, Ron Johnston
It’s the evening before the small river town in Illinois (St Charles) celebrates the annual event “Scarecrow Festival” and two teen boys, Corey (Trevor Morgan) and Scott (Hallock Beals), take their girlfriends out to Munger Road where supposedly paranormal events occur, to try to scare them to death. But on the same night, news comes in to Chief Kirkhoven (Bruce Davison) that a killer has gotten out of prison and may be on his way back to St. Charles. He and his deputy set out to check it out and the teens car suddenly fails and will no longer start, leaving them stranded out in the woods for the night. The Chief then ends up trying to clean up the horror unleashed upon the young people in part one of this old fashioned horror film.
This film is supposedly based upon a true story. Well, let’s say it is based on rumored events. There is a Munger Road, and it did have a train track that crosses the road, and supposedly a school bus stalled out there and was struck by a train killing a lot of children. Real kids have a sort of rite of passage to go out with baby powder on the bumper, and sit on the tracks, waiting for the ghosts of these children to push the car off the tracks to protect them. But it’s been debunked a couple times as just a little dip in the road that causes the car to roll away by itself. Still, many people believe the stories and it’s one of those cool local traditions to scare your younger siblings with the stories generation after generation. But as for the movie, it’s not perfect by any means, and it’s been lambasted by a lot of people, probably somewhat justly. First of all, this film is now several years old, and it just stops right in the middle of the action with a “TO BE CONTINUED” on the screen. But I remember the entire theater getting close to violent when “Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring” ended like that, and you would probably call that a good film. But it is true that the producers promise a sequel, and say they are working on it, continuing right where this one left off on the morning of the Scarecrow Festival. But as of now, it hasn’t been made. Also, I found the film really, really dark, and by that I mean, NO LIGHT. Much of it was too dark to see anything going on, and it was a bit like listening to a radio drama sometimes. But you can mitigate that by watching it in a really dark room, and putting up with the suspense of not being able to see much going on, just like the characters would be experiencing. But the basic story was good. Sure it borrows from some classic horror stories. But all horror films do, there are really only a few different stories anyway. But this is not the bloody, gory horror of many films. Instead, it’s spooky and creepy, and very suspenseful. All in all, this is a lot of what a good horror film should be, one that keeps you on the edge of your seat. They did a nice job of painting the fear on the screen so we can see it (sometimes, when it’s not too dark), and it will creep you out. But remember, you’re not going to get an ending unless the follow up comes out, so don’t be upset when it suddenly just stops. As long as you’re prepared for that, I think horror fans will enjoy this movie. And if the sequel ever returns, I’ll be happy to report on that, as I can’t wait to see the rest.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
Author: EdG
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