- Directed by Niko Volonakis
- Written by Patricia V. Davis
- Stars Tara Nichol Caldwell, Joshua Malekos, Danielle Octavian
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 56 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K15ImhAilQs
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This one is heavy on the mystery and thriller aspects and low key on horror. The cinematography, cast, direction, and story keep a long movie interesting. It didn’t seem long, though it does take quite a while to start wrapping things up and telling us what’s going on and why. We liked it quite a bit and would recommend it.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on farmers working in an orchard. Ed then takes a break and buries a man alive in the field. Credits roll.
We cut to karaoke night at the bar, and Tara and Helen laugh at Johnny, who’s “singing.” Tara’s mother is not a fan of Johnny, who is “making” Tara move from the city way out into the country. They stop at a house and meet a really weird guy named Georgie there.
Eventually, they get to their own house, and it’s a big one. Johnny says they have a landline, but no WiFi, which she needs for work. There’s a painting on the wall of Livia, a famous Italian painter, who used to live there. Livia got called back to Italy and had to sell the house cheap, and Johnny just got lucky.
That night, as they sleep, a rat climbs up on the bed and licks Tara on the face. She screams, Johnny searches, but there are no rats to be found.
A week passes, and Tara’s mom complains that she’s hard to reach by cell phone; Mom might be a little crazy. We flash back to Tara finding a photo of her mother with a man she doesn’t recognize when Mom freaks out.
Tara goes for a walk and bumps into a strangely silent man who warns her about coyotes. Later, we see that man flying a small airplane over the countryside.
Tara goes to the Post Office to send a fax, and Mary Ann, the woman who runs the place, tells her how to get Internet access. She tells them about Dale, a local guy who can fix them up. The bar also has WiFi. Georgie is there too, and he’s still weird; he sings to them. Johnny is weirdly protective, but maybe in a creepy way.
Johnny and Tara go to the bar and talk to Annie about the situation. Georgie comes in, and Mike the bartender throws him out. The quiet man from earlier comes in, he’s Sergeant Brian. Annie doesn’t like Brian. Mike doesn’t like Georgie.
Tara thinks she sees someone outside, and Johnny goes out to check on it; he says the phone lines have been damaged, either chewed or cut.
We cut to Annie, out in the woods, who encounters a masked killer. We then cut to Sergeant Brian out shooting beer bottles. Johnny and Tara take a shower together as Georgie peeps in through the window; Johny sees him and overreacts, at least in Tara’s eyes. The next morning, Tara calls Helen and tells her what’s been going on.
Tara goes to the Post Office and arranges for Internet with Dale, who says he talked to Johnny last week, and Johnny never called him back. Mike calls Mary Ann to say that Annie’s been murdered. On the way home, Tara sees Johnny visiting a grave in the graveyard. When he leaves, she checks out the grave, someone named Gloria.
Mary Ann tells Tara about Mr. Takahashi’s orchard about twenty years ago. The old man found a strange hole in his field that was filled in that night; there was a body buried there, and then they found 24 more graves. They caught the killer, Ed Mackay, who died in prison years ago.
Tara finally gets WiFi and tells Helen that she doesn’t want Johnny to know that she’s rented a car. She wants to follow Johnny and spy on him. It’s all very sketchy, and there are no red lights at all. That night, Tara dreams of Livia being dead in their house. Tara confronts Johnny, and he has an answer for everything, mostly that it’s all in Tara’s imagination.
Tara asks Mary Anne about Gloria Rivera, the headstone that Johnny visited. Gloria killed herself many years ago when her husband cheated on her. That husband was Ed Mackay.
Tara follows Johnny to an old farmhouse where he keeps his pet rat. Yes, he’s been lying to her about that all along. Helen tells her to leave him right now, but Tara won’t do it until she finds out why. Helen says Johnny probably killed Annie, too. Helen says Livia’s body was found, and since Georgie was the one who found her body and got the blame. She offers to fly up there tonight.
That night, Tara is ready for the rat, and she kills it. In the morning, Johnny cries as he secretly buries his rat. Then he starts digging a larger grave. Afterward, Mary Ann gives him a ride home. She calls Sergeant Brian afterward, he’s her father and runs to his plane.
Tara packs her stuff, waiting for Helen. She does some research on Glora Rivers and recognizes her from the photo her mother has. She calls her mother, wanting to know why she had a photo of Gloria in her desk. Her mother freaks out. It turns out Tara’s mother was the other woman for Ed, and Ed and Gloria had a son, Johnny.
Johnny calls; this was all done to get revenge on Tara’s mother for breaking up his family. Johnny admits that Livia was his wife, and he admits that he killed her. He did all this so that Tara would kill herself. Oh, and by the way, she’s his half sister. Incest is best. Ew.
She whacks him with a stick but doesn’t finish the job. She runs outside and sure enough Johnny gets up to pursue. Brian flies overhead and lands with his rifle in hand. The two men argue until Tara whacks Johnny with a shovel.
Brian’s Commentary
It’s very colorful, sharp, and very visual, with many really artistic shots of the country and various settings. It’s not boring at all, but it does take a really long time to get to the main plot.
I don’t understand why Tara wouldn’t have driven back to the city at the first opportunity and just dumped Johnny. Even without the gaslighting, he’s an ass. Especially after she learned the truth about the rat. Helen makes sense in every scene that she’s in, but Tara just refuses to leave.
The mystery develops well, but Johnny’s motivations are a little sketchy.
Kevin’s Commentary
The only real criticism I have is Tara staying around after she knows that something is very wrong about Johnny. She’s got the means to leave, a best friend or a mother she could stay with, but chooses to stay. Which of course lets the second half of the movie unfold like it does. Other than that, it’s well made, and overall I liked it.