- Directed by Vincent Grashaw
- Written by Robert Alan Dilts
- Stars Robert Patrick, Nick Stahl, Scott Haze
- Run Time: 2 Hours
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGK8Jc65RCs
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s a thriller, but it’s pushing it to be called horror. It looks great, has a powerhouse cast, intricate story, and interesting visuals. It seemed a bit long and drawn out, but things build as the the past comes to light. Multiple things aren’t what they seem, and it does have a really interesting conclusion.
Synopsis
We open on establishing shots that demonstrate that we are in farm country; poverty-stricken farm country. Thomas talks to his broken tractor, which he almost gets started. Josiah Graham watches him from inside the house. Thomas comes inside and mentions something about God. Josiah tells him that he saw something strange this morning. He describes seeing a little leprechaun out in the field doing a jig. Josiah compares believing in leprechauns to believing in God, and Thomas is pretty religious.
Part 1
We cut to some real estate developers talking to the local Assemblyman, Mr. Gentry. They want the town’s outlying properties to extract oil from shale. Gentry points out that the Graham property will be a hard sell; “That place has a bad history.” He tells that the wife, Miriam Graham, hanged herself one morning. “The townsfolk, they swear it’s haunted, that a ghost walks that farm at night.” The developers are unimpressed.
The town thinks of Thomas as the village idiot. Thomas is infatuated with Tanner, a little boy in town. Thomas admits to Josiah that he still looks for his mother’s ghost outside every night. Josiah hits him and insists “She ain’t out there.” That night, Josiah wakes up in the middle of the night and sees something that terrifies him.
“We’ve been given a way to wash away our sins and make peace with God,” he tells Thomas. He believes in God now, and he believes that Miriam is in Hell for committing suicide. Dead-Miriam came to him last night and explained it all. They have to right a great wrong, and she can be saved. First, they have to clean up the house, which is a neglected mess.
Josiah and Thomas get to work on getting the place ship-shape. The two of them talk about women, sex, and dirty magazines. The conversation gets weird, to say the least.
Part 2
Elsewhere, Thomas’s brother Eli has sex with a woman for drugs. His parole officer comes by and handcuffs him before asking about a missing nine-year-old girl. Eli says that the girl was 16 in a bar and didn’t look her age, he did his time, and he has nothing to do with this missing girl. Later, Eli goes to see local crime lord Boone, after getting past his gatekeepers. Boone hands the sheriff a big envelope of money. Eli owes Boone a “substantial amount of money,” and Boone threatens to have him killed. Boone tells a story about a local group of gypsies that are supposed to have a bunch of gold bars; he wants Eli to go with Billy and see if the story is true and steal them.
Billy explains the plan. Eli’s job is just to go in and distract the girls. Eli goes to the gypsy party, and they all do gypsy dances and gypsy stuff. Wait– Actual Romani Gypsies in Odessa, Texas? I am skeptical. Eli talks to Gina, and she is, in fact, distracted. She offers to “give him a reading.” She takes him to an old woman who is a genuine fortune teller. She says he’s going to die–_ soon_. She then reads tea leaves and says, “You are why she burns.” “Who burns?” “Your mother. You run from something unspeakable that’s not finished with you yet. Oh, and you’re after our gold!” The gypsies attack the three men. And Eli’s tea was drugged.
When Eli wakes up, he finds that Boone has sold him out. He’s still with the gypsies. Eli gives his captor the drugs he got from sex from earlier, not mentioning to him that it’s uncut and too powerful. The captor is soon quite dead. Eli takes the gold, which is in a locked box, and leaves with the missing nine-year-old, who had actually been kidnapped by the gypsies. He gets away and squares things up with Boone. Boone picks up the gold and almost immediately dies; it’s poisoned or cursed or something. Eli turns the girl over to the sheriff and leaves town. He reads the letter sent by the oil developers.
Part 3
Mary and Ross Milner go to see a lawyer about getting approved for an adoption; she got tubal ligation at a very young age. She consents to having someone evaluate her mental stability. She does really hard workouts and abandons her grocery cart at the store, demonstrating to us that she has some mental issues. Ross fears that Mary will kill herself, and they have a fight. She still wants a child, but he fears she’s not going to be a good mother.
After a trip to the psychiatrist, Mary goes home to find her brother Eli is there. She’s not happy to see him. She got the letter from the developer too. He wants to sell, and they all have to sign off on it in order to sell. She wants to go back to the farm with Eli and see the place one more time before they’re rid of it for good.
Eli and Mary go home and see Thomas, who is happy to see them both. They were expecting them; Thomas got the letter too. Eli mentions the old garbage dump and sinkhole to Mary, who knows what he’s talking about. Josiah believes that Eli and Mary were too close, and Mary got pregnant. That’s why Miriam killed herself. Josiah wants to right this old wrong.
Mary talks to Thomas as Eli digs in the dump. Mary gets a call from Ross; the adoption people have approved them to become parents. She’s going to be a mother! Her reaction is mixed. They confront Thomas about his own ex-wife, whom we haven’t heard about until just now. She left Tommy and remarried a man named Tate. We hear that Tanner is Thomas’s real son, but there’s a whole pile of restraining orders to keep him away from the boy.
Thomas talks about Eli and Mary’s baby, and Eli makes it clear that the baby came from Josiah, not him. Thomas’s mind is blown. Josiah had been lying about all this to Thomas for years. They ask who Thomas is talking to. Josiah of course. Then Eli reminds him that Josiah’s been dead and buried for twenty-three years.
Wait. What? So that’s why Thomas was the only one we ever saw speaking with Josiah.
Eli couldn’t find the grave in the dump. We find out that Thomas really isn’t all there mentally. Made worse when Josiah burned him in the head with an iron when he was a boy. Shortly after their mother killed herself, all three children beat Josiah to death, twenty-three years ago. Some time ago, Thomas dug up the baby’s bones and Josiah’s and put them in a box.
Thomas kills them both.
We get a flashback to see Eli and Mary boinking in the motel. Thomas wasn’t wrong about them. Or was that only what he was imagining happened?
Commentary
This is just plain weird. The cinematography and sets are great; it all looks really creepy and dark. The acting is good, and all the characters are believable. The stereotypical fortune-telling gypsies are a bit much.
Early on, we hear Josiah and Thomas talk about Eli, and we see in an old photo that Mary is their sister, so this is all one big, connected family drama.
About halfway through the film, Kevin said, “This is long and dull.” About two-thirds of the way through, I agreed with him. I still agree with him, but it does all tie up in an interesting way in the end. A lot of the middle action with Eli could have been cut out, but it’s still an interesting story.
It’s majorly creepy; there’s no arguing that, but is it horror?