Backwater bad religion and sibling sex come together swimmingly in the impressive indie
Jug Face (2013). By all accounts, debutant writer-director
Chad Crawford Kinkle is gonna have a great career ahead of him. That's if the gods of hillbilly horrors and the supernatural slasher genre will stick around to preside over a few generations more of Southern Gothic inbred killers and the horror DVDs they sell. Here, we closely follow an isolated community from the animated opening credits through to a grim, deterministic end. It's a tight little village story about young Ada (
Lauren Ashley Carter), who's supposed to be a nubile virgin about to marry straight-laced Bodey (
Mathieu Whitman) but she hides a bun in the oven, an unspeakably incestuous one co-baked with her brother Jessaby
(
Daniel Manche) at that. Running parallel to this story is another village secret. There's a magic pit in the woods that sends its sacrificial wishlist by way of visions to a seer named
Dawai (
Sean Bridgers) who happens to be the village halfwit. Every season, this reluctant potter will fashion a clay jug bearing the face
of the next intended and the villagers will offer up a blood sacrifice via slow-drip. Wotta fresh spin! Bring on the mystery and the moonshine, fellas.
Bad news on the doorstep:
 |
| "The pit wants what the pit wants." |
Not a big issue but some didn't like the CG aspects, however little, for they do remind us how cheaply the movie was put together. Make-up FX veteran
Bob Kurtzman is attached to this, so I wonder if there were better ways to film the more demanding apparitions we see. Others note the underpopulated village as another down point that took us out of the experience. Also, the somewhat muted ending seems to wanna hold itself back unnecessarily. I'd have fancied a stronger finish.
Perennial wonderment:
 |
| "Please, sir. Can we have a sequel?" |
If you're wondering where you've seen big-eyed brunette
Lauren Ashley Carter before, she's the younger sister in
The Woman (2010). Lass sure has blossomed nicely, eh? Birds like these do so swell in horrors playing the dishevelled innocent.
Reminds me of:
A refreshing evil blend of
Terribly Happy (2008),
The Breed (2008),
The Shrine (2010) and
M. Night Shyamalan's
The Village (2004).
Most memorable line:
"The pit wants what the pit wants."
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Confident piece of storytelling. Even the music is good and adds value to the package. Definitely several cuts above the usual crap lately. Check out the
official website and the
Facebook fan page for more info.
★★★1/2
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| "Open further and lemme see that smelly snatch, you ungrateful whore!" |
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