Greetings
valued Dan's Movie Report readers. As we near Halloween, I figured I
need to review a few horror and thriller films. Greenlight, fresh off
two big wins at Shriekfest comes across my desk, and I must say, this
film is my thriller of the year. A low budget film about making a low
budget film, Greenlight excels in the simplicity of the setup, yet
flails out and forces the viewer to their edge of their seat for 83
minutes.
A bit
of credit to the talented people behind the film prior to my review:
Greenlight is
the directorial debut of Graham
Denman, written by Patrick
R Young (Bastard, My Teacher,
My Obsession) and produced by Rudy
Scalese (Going To Pieces:
The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, Casa De Mi Padre, Ceremony).
Financed by Talk Story
Pictures and executive produced
by Greg Blunden, Pamela
Blunden and Phil
Malasapina.
The movie stars Chase Williamson (Beyond the Gates, John Dies at the End), Shane Coffey (Pretty Little Liars, Starry Eyes), Caroline Williams (Texas Chainsaw Massacre II, Tales of Halloween) and Chris Browning (Bright, Angel Has Fallen, Only Mine, Bosch). The film also stars Craig Stark (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Django Unchained), Victor Turpin (Murder Mystery, Shades of Blue), Nicole Shipley (Buddy Hutchins, All Saints Eve), & Evanne Friedmann(Awkward).
An
indie film director named jack (Chase Williamson), who has yet to
direct a feature is stuck in the loop of not being able to direct a
feature without experience on a full length film. I have had so many
short film makers talk to me and basically say I hope that a producer
sees my short and is convinced I can handle a feature. Every director
has to start somewhere on their first feature. Jack has to go through
the entire range of acting emotions, and Williamson very much
deserved his best actor nod at Shriekfest. The important thing here
is Chase never over acts a scene. If there is anger, fear, sadness,
nervousness or anxiety, he remains grounded and understated, seething undeneath yet powerless to act. This is
usually a huge issue in lower budget films, but in Greenlight the
acting is extremely good all the way around and Chase brings the character
home. It is important to note that this film also won best thriller
at Shriekfest as well.
Above: Greenlight’s producer Rudy Scalese (left) and director Graham Denman (right)
What
is a good thriller/horror flick without some lovely ladies? In
Greenlight, the ladies are not just damsels in distress, but an
integral part of the story. Veteran actress Caroline Williams plays
the star of the indie film being shot, and she happens to be the wife
of the producer. She emotes on screen and yes purposely overacts for
the 'film' portion of Greenlight, then gets back into a natural
character when she is off the set. It is important to note, much of
Greenlight is about shooting an indie film so the cast has to alter
their natural acting when the director, Jack yells action. Evanne
Friedmann has a smaller yet integral part as the girlfriend, yet
portrays an interesting side character trying to sell her book. She
gets a bit involved later in the story. Finally, and I must mention,
and give a special praise to actress Nicole Alexandra Shipley as
Sarah. There is a particular scene, it actually does not spoil the
plot, where she is sitting in a make-up chair covered in blood all
over her face, shoulders, and is calm, and collected and plays it
straight to the angst ridden Jack. She really has some profound words
of wisdom, which I wont spoil, but has my favorite line of the film
when Jack says “Are you sure this is a good time time?” and she
says: “I am covered in blood, this is a great time, take a seat.”
I chuckled and this added a bit of levity to the very serious film.
The two talented actors absolutely nail this scene, and kudos to
director Graham Denman for maximizing this performance and obviously
he is in tune with the emotional gravitas of the characters. He
really got all of the actors in Greenlight to bring their A game to
their performances.
Every
thriller needs a villain, and Chris Browning as Producer Moseby
brings the danger, and threats to a visceral level. The cool thing
here is with the exception of actress Caroline Williams (who plays
his wife), he is much older than the rest of the characters in the
film. The simple fact of this makes Greenlight more believable. Think
of a teacher who preys on a student, an authority figure taking
advantage of an underling, or worse. Greenlight explores fears
without being preachy. The audience is in the moment, without being
bogged down.
Since
this is a no spoiler review, I will not mention anything about what
happens, but will state that all the elements in this film are top
notch. The sets, the lighting, ADR, special effects, music, plus I
would like to make a mention of the make up artist who must have
spent hours getting a very beautiful Nicole completely covered in
blood, not random splatter, but like perfect lines of dripping all
conforming to her body. Greenlight is a real low budget masterpiece
of tension and angst wrapped up into a cunning, yet for the most
part, subtle story. I watched the film two times prior to this
review, and found it to be damn incredible, Greenlight rates a
back-lot bloodbath 9.5 out of 10, yep it is that good. Final
suggestions: when they start doing real PR for this film and nearer
to actual wide release day, I feel Nicole needs to be covered in
stage blood just like in Greenlight to do press interviews, and just
be as cool as a cucumber like in the actual movie. Hey, make a
splash, in thriller terms, it should be blood splatter!
Check
out the film on IMDB @ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6798766/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/filmgreenlight
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