Bright HIll Road (2020, dir:
Robert
Cuffley; script: Susan Maloney; cast: Siobhan Williams, Michael Eklund, Agam
Darshi, Sally Cacic)
Marcy
(Siobhan Williams) is a mess. She's an alcoholic with a tragic
past. Lots of misfortunes and reasons for guilt. Then one day a
Disgruntled Former Employee (tm) returns to Marcy's workplace and
shoots up the place.
More guilt for Marcy. She's head of Human Resources and didn't take
the former employee's threats seriously. She was probably too
drunk to care.
Marcy is given a leave of absence, so she heads for California.
Driving drunk, she barely avoids a collision. But she manages to
arrive at the Bright Hill Road Boarding House for little R&R,
before continuing her journey.
It's a suitably creepy place, situated in a tiny town on the flat,
barren plains of Alberta. (Bright
Hill Road was shot in Canada.) Mrs. Inman (Agam Darshi)
runs the boarding house. She's a cool, matronly, proper sort of
widow woman. Despite all the weird things Marcy reports seeing in
the house, Mrs. Inman is forever unperturbed.
Much of the film is the weird stuff that Marcy sees. Burned bodies,
screaming women, accidents. A sudden "fright" and then it's gone.
Marcy can't tell what's real, what isn't. One moment she's left
the hotel and is driving away, then she awakes back at the hotel.
One moment she's fine, then she looks in the mirror and sees blood
dripping from her head. Or she turns around and suddenly her room
is filled with booze bottles. I mean, hundreds of booze
bottles. Covering the bed, the floor, every chair, desk, and
table.
This is one of those films where you're not sure if the character is
experiencing actual hauntings, or if she's going insane. Or is it
all a nightmare? About a third into the film, I wondered if Marcy
was in Purgatory or Hell. That was even before Mrs Inman told
Marcy (early in the film) that this is a place people come to do
penance for their sins.
Bright Hill Road is an
attractive film. It doesn't have the cheap video look of many
low-budget films. Its production values are slick. The boarding
house is moodily lit, some of the compositions are affecting, and
the cinematography is creative. Marcy occasionally blurs in and
out to convey her sense of drunkenness. Talented make-up effects
and fine acting all around.
Longtime horror fans might not find
Bright Hill Road all thatscary. It's nothing we
haven't seen many times before. One problem with this sort of film
is that there's no real story. Marcy just walks about, seeing and
hearing scary but disjointed things. A sudden shock, then
everything's back to normal. We're just waiting for the punchline.
Is she in Hell? In a coma? Will she get a second chance at life?
After all the shocks and frights, how will things turn out for
her?
Part of Bright Hill Road's
creepiness derives from its small cast. The boarding house
is vast but vacant, aside from one other guest, a slimy dude
named Owen (Michael Eklund). A few other cast members put in
a brief appearance during the office shootout, but the bulk
of the film is just Marcy, Mrs. Inman, and Owen.
Although it treads familiar ground,
Bright Hill Road is a cozy, creepy film, enjoyable if
you're in the mood for this sort of subgenre.
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