2019 Directed by Roxanne Benjamin
When an inexperienced park ranger finds a dead body under mysterious circumstances on a remote mountain trail, she must guard it overnight until authorities can arrive, forcing her to confront some of her deepest, darkest fears.
Тело у Брайтон-Рок, Rastros na Escuridão
Horror, the undead and monster classics Monsters, aliens, sci-fi and the apocalypse horror, gory, scary, killing or slasher scary, horror, creepy, supernatural or frighten zombies, undead, horror, gory or flesh horror, creepy, eerie, blood or gothic creature, aliens, monster, sci-fi or scary Show All…
A young woman is very bad at her job but it's sort of not her fault since apparently it takes 18 hours for a coroner to get to a place she hiked to in an afternoon. Anyway I thought this was stupid.
At a time when so many low-budget indies seem resigned to streaming, Roxanne Benjamin’s fun and forgettable “Body at Brighton Rock” feels ready-made for a Friday night on your couch. It’s a total slumber party of a movie, told with plenty of skill, even more potential, and an utter lack of preciousness from its delightful opening moments to its enjoyable shrug of a last-minute twist. A large part of that appeal is owed to the throwback vibe of a movie that eschews straightforward nostalgia in favor of a subdermal longing for a more innocent time. Benjamin is a rising star with deep roots in the horror world (previous credits include producing “V/H/S” and directing segments in anthology offerings “Southbound” and…
The idea of the scalability of horror occurred to me as I watched this. In the hands of an able practitioner a film should be scary because the director wills it. But inside its walls, what scares the protagonist? That will change from person to person, situation to situation. So when Roxanne Benjamin tailors the boundaries of this film's fear to that of a green young ranger trainee who's apparently frightened by the mere prospect of being outdoors, I'm into it. At first.
The first principles behind Body at Brighton Rock were sound. And after seeing Benjamin's segment in Southbound, I was looking forward to her feature length debut. Even as a first time, though, this ended up way rougher…
signs being a park ranger isn't for you:
- you regularly litter
- you get freaked out by sounds in the forest
- you easily get lost
- you contaminate a possible crime scene
- you don't really like most animals
- you throw your radio away in a cathartic display of littering
This is a pretty interesting movie. It doesn't reinvent the horror genre wheel and doesn't do anything too ambitious, but for a short, low-key thriller, it is a quick and intense watch. And as a filmmaker, I'm impressed how much the director got out of so little resources
Available on Hulu
Don’t go in the woods...alone. Poppy survival picture that stretches an already threadbare premise thin, yet maintains a creepy “hang out horror” vibe throughout. Now I’m super intrigued to see what Roxanne Benjamin does with NIGHT OF THE COMET. Bonus: Oingo Boingo!
2023 Tubi Watchlist Catch-Up #4
Sun-bleached, bizarrely campy indie thriller that feels like a mash-up of 80s/90s California-set teen comedies, regional 70s schlock woodlands-set natural horror, and isolation/paranoia "descent into madness" mindfuckery. Imagine if Amy Heckerling or Martha Coolidge decided to make survival horror film on a nothing budget, starring Nickelodeon-level actors, and shot it in the mountains outside LA. That's an approximation of this bonkers movie. It's NOT a creature feature, don't be fooled by the poster.
The plot synopses, trailers, and professional reviews really don't do this film justice, I don't think. It's a total B-movie, looks like it's made-for-cable, and never fails to throw complete randomness and boneheadedness at the audience. The Ranger station in this film…
No, from the get go her pals should not have.
A difficult trail and she's on her own. I have a terrible sense of direction. I always fuck up, so I feared for this girl right away. Still her dancing through the woods is legendary. I'm so sick of my daily walks I think I'll step it up a gear and skip wiggle and pony tail hair toss my way around.
Spending the night with the dead body, that's hard. All those films you've ever watched, here you go. But honey that dead body has a tale to tell, it's not going to let you down. Be cool with it. Oh and remember beasts are hungry for rotten flesh and of course the actual killer. Prove them all wrong, you can do it.
I cheerleadered my brains out for this girl. That bear attack. Give this girl full access
How many recklessly stupid things can one character do before you stop caring if they live or die? When it’s human versus nature, the stakes should be clear. This movie isn’t as bad as The Revenant, where I actively rooted for the elements, but I had the same wearying “OK, what ordeal is next?” sensation. (It wasn’t helped here by Hulu’s key art spoiling the last five minutes.)
It’s too bad — the bones of this tale could make for a leaner, more effective thriller. Writer-director Roxanne Benjamin has a fertile idea that she executes with some clear skill. One of the virtues of her contribution to the XX anthology was its get-in/get-out velocity; this one feels padded at just 87 minutes.
Still, there’s enough here to anticipate Benjamin’s upcoming Blumhouse picture; that it’s not her script could be a plus.
I’ve seen commercials for local car dealerships that are shot better than this.
Karina Fontes plays Wendy, a sweetly green park ranger who's not really made for the outdoors. While she does make some of worst choices ever in a survivalist flick, I was rooting for her all the way. She's so out of her element that it's endearing--even when it's often hard to swallow. Wendy's trail dance reminded me of the Walkman scene in House of the Devil, a flick with similar retro vibes and slow burning psychological tension. The ending twist was a slight cheat, but it works. 7.3/10
