- Directed by Scott Cooper
- Written by Henry Chaisson, Nick Antosca, Scott Cooper
- Stars Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Jeremy T. Thomas
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 39 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng5eyOfL8qM
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A grim and depressing film that’s pretty terrific. It builds nicely, gradually letting us figure out what’s going on – and what has already gone on. The characters all have a lot of depth, the child actors are excellent along with the rest of the cast, and the special effects are top-notch.
Synopsis
We are told that Mother Earth has been pillaged, and this has awakened a malevolent spirit.
Frank works in the old abandoned mine while his son Lucas waits in the car. They both hear strange sounds. The man goes down into the tunnels beneath the place – they have a meth lab down there. Frank and his partner go investigate the odd sounds. We don’t see it, but something attacks them both. Then the boy goes inside looking for dad. Credits roll.
Julia is a recovering alcoholic and teacher in Oregon. She’s explaining Native American storytelling and folklore to a bored classroom.
Lucas, Frank’s son, is one of her students. Lucas goes home, to an empty-looking house, and we see he has a locked room inside. Something on the other side of the door bangs against it. We hear on the radio that the mine is going to be re-opening soon.
Julia goes home, and we see that her brother Paul is the sheriff. Something weighs on her mind, as she takes pictures off the wall. She thinks that she’ll move out soon, her brother says she’s welcome to stay. Neither of them seem pleased with their jobs or their life.
In class, twelve-year-old Lucas reads a creepy story that he wrote to the class. It’s about the three bears, but it’s not a pleasant version. Julia calls Lucas’s house, but no one answers. She follows Lucas home that afternoon. Lucas says he lives with his brother. She goes inside the house, and she hears the thing behind the door growling, but she leaves. Lucas feeds roadkill to his brother and what appears to be a mutated version of his father.
Paul gets a report from Stokes, the retired sheriff, who found part of a dead man in the woods. The other half was found in the old mine. We see that Julia still has PTSD from her abusive father. She tells Paul what she heard at Frank’s house. We piece together that she got old enough to bail and moved out of state, leaving Paul to live alone with their father. Who eventually died and Paul inherited the house. There is a lot of pain, grief, and baggage.
Julia goes through Lucas’s school desk and finds many creepy drawings. She goes to the principal with the information. The principal goes to Lucas’s house and she hears Lucas’s brother crying inside the locked room. She goes up to the attic and finds more than she expected. We get a good look at Frank as he eats her and glows from within. With the extra protein, he mutates further.
On the way home from school, Lucas is accosted by Clint, the school bully, who soon finds out there are worse things than bullies in the woods. Lucas runs home to find that Frank has escaped.
Paul goes looking for the missing principal and ends up at Frank’s house. They don’t have a warrant so they don’t go in. Julie finds the principal’s card so they have probable cause and go in to find the body. They also find some of Frank’s body. We get a flashback to what happened with Frank and Aiden and the locked door right after they got infected.
Julie wants to take care of Lucas, but Paul isn’t thrilled with the idea. They go talk to Stokes, an old Native American man, and he knows about the antler they found in the mine. He thinks it’s from a wendigo, a crazed, cannibalistic monster that feeds on flesh. Eating only makes them hungrier. It can only be killed by extinguishing its beating heart. Paul thinks it’s a myth, but Julia is a little more accepting.
Julia takes Lucas to her house and tells him that his father is dead, but Lucas says that was his old dad who died. His new dad only needs food. “He will come for me and take me to the mine to be with Aiden,” he says. There’s a howl outside. “He’s here,” he adds.
The monster kills Deputy Dan, and Paul is also attacked. Julia says Lucas ran off to go to the mine, and she plans to follow them. She loads Paul into the car and drives to the mine instead of the hospital.
She goes into the dark mine alone with nothing but Paul’s pistol and a flashlight. She finds Lucas and Aiden, who tell her to go back. She then sees the wendigo eating a bear. It still has parts of Frank’s face stuck to it. She stabs it repeatedly in the heart. Eventually it wears down, and she cuts the heart out, killing it.
Aiden starts to scream; the wendigo is taking a new host. She has to kill the little ten-year-old.
Eventually, Paul recovers from his injury, and the two decide to keep Lucas to raise. Paul just can’t stop coughing up black goo…
Commentary
This may be the grayest, most depressingly morbid town ever, even without the monster. The sense of impending doom and dread is really thick here. This just isn’t a fun place to live. Add in meth addicts, child abuse, and neglect, and you’ve got a seriously fun film.
There’s a whole backstory about Paul and Julia’s abusive father that we never really see, but we get enough to know that it scarred both of them. Frank’s abuse or neglect of Lucas and Aiden parallel this, and make them all a lot more sympathetic.