- Directed by Harley Wallen
- Written by Bret Miller
- Stars Sean Whalen, Maria Olsen, Kaiti Wallen, Yan Birch, Harley Wallen
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtL389DB25Y
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This one was all-around entertaining. There’s a real monster and human monsters, and the focus is how an orphan girl coming of age deals with them both. We get some dimension to all the main characters; no one is just flat. It’s well-written, well-acted, and the tech aspects were all very good.
Spoilery Synopsis
In Scandinavia, 912 AD, two girls go into a field, but one soon goes missing and is found murdered. The local men track down the killer and put him in a coffin. They take the coffin to Vinland, “The Americas” and bury him alive there. Credits roll.
In the present day, Julie finds a wounded bird and takes it home in a box.
Elsewhere, Rebecca gets bad news about a child she was overseeing. She’s a social worker facing burnout, so her boss wants to transfer her to a new position.
We cut to Janelle Gibs making breakfast (Kevin points out that she’s using a metal spatula in non-stick pans, which he says is a real moment of horror.). Julie, with the bird, is her foster daughter, and her foster father, Todd, is trouble.
Todd wakes up with a hangover when he hears Julie’s bird singing. He is not happy. “You bring this germ-infested animal into my house?” He then smashes the bird with a hammer, “You are making me do this,” he says.
Outside, Julie finds an old-looking pendant and then immediately hears a high-pitched noise that hurts her head. Rebecca, who has moved to the country, has been assigned to watch over the Gibbs family, who fosters four children. They explain how Julie was upset about the bird, but then she left and didn’t come home for a long time.
Rebecca asks Julie why she was found in the middle of the road. The meeting goes well, and Rebecca tells the Gibbs everything is fine. That night, Julie hears voices, and we see that she still has the ancient pendant.
That night, Todd goes to “work,” playing at the local illegal gambling place; he owes them quite a bit. Meanwhile, Julie is out roaming the forest at night, and the pendant leads her to an old box half-buried in the dirt. She opens the box, which turns out to be the coffin we saw in the pre-credit scene. The man inside sits up; he’s clearly some kind of undead creature. He’s very weak, so she helps him, just like she did with the bird. She hides him in the family barn.
Detective Donovan Booker comes to see Rebecca. He’s moving to a new job and will be relocating, and he wants her to go with him.
Julie’s little foster brother, Stephen, says he’s afraid of something out in the woods. She shows him her man in the barn. She feeds the creature potato chips, and he says his name is Frey.
Rebecca goes to see Julie again. Julie’s 18th birthday is approaching, and she’ll soon be aging out of the system. Rebecca brings up college and what comes up after.
That night, we watch as Frey attacks Bud, a man outside working on his truck. Yes, Frey is a vampire. It looks like he probably gets his wife too. In the morning, Julie finds that Frey is looking much healthier. She also finds big gobs of meaty bits laying all over the barn.
Detective Donovan gets assigned to the murder of Bud and his wife. It’s going to be his last case, and we see that the bodies have been torn to pieces. Julie notices that the family cat has gone missing.
Stephen warns Julie that Frey makes him uncomfortable, but she insists on helping her new “project.” Frey gets really excited when he notices a cut on Julie’s hand, and they drink each other’s blood.
Rebecca and Donovan talk about the “bear attack” case, and she mentions that it happened awfully close to the Gibbs house. She then goes to see Julia about college applications, but Julie’s pretty spaced out and not really paying attention. Stephen tells Rebecca about Julie meeting a strange man in the woods, but Janelle says that’s just not possible. Rebecca argues with Janelle and leaves, telling Donovan the whole story.
Things go badly for Todd as the gambling place. Back at the house, the two little foster girls go missing. The girls are soon found, half-eaten. Julie is there too, but she doesn’t look as upset as she should. Stephen tells Rebecca that he doesn’t want to stay there anymore. She can’t do anything tonight, so he goes back inside, where Julie waits with big fangs…
Julie goes to see Frey, who says he’s stronger than ever before. He looks more like a demon now than a human, and he says one more night should do it.
Julie calls Rebecca and tells her that something is wrong. She needs help. Rebecca and Donovan rush over. Stephen tells Todd that the thing that hurt the girls is outside, so Todd grabs his shotgun and goes out. Julie and Frey are out there, and she sucks Todd dry. She looks down at his corpse, “Look what you made me do.”
Stephen and Janelle hide in a bedroom as Rebecca and Donovan arrive. Donovan shoots Frey a few times, but there’s no blood; Frey gets up and kills him. Julie bites Janelle in front of Rebecca. When Frey goes to kill Stephen, Julie protects her little brother and kills the master vampire.
In the morning, Rebecca and Stephen wait for the police to pick them up.
Commentary
This was really good. The music, sound design, and lighting are much better than we usually see with indie films, as are the acting and the pacing. Yes, there’s a vampire, but the dramatic side of the story with the abused kids is handled really well. Julie is clearly terrified of Todd and not as scared of the “real monster,” Frey.
Angelina Danielle Cama stands out as Julie. Yan Birch as Frey is also good, although he’s a little hard to understand when he speaks in his modulated monster voice. Sean Whalen and Maria Olsen are suitably scummy as the Gibbs.
We were pleasantly surprised with this one!