Year released: 2010
THE CHARGE: Being yet another "creepy things in the woods" movie and paying attention to the man behind the curtain.
THE EVIDENCE: Once in a while, a low budget horror flick clearly aspires to be something more. It doesn't intend just to scare you, it wants you to think about why you're scared. When it succeeds, it’s a magical masterpiece of creative film making that not only raises goose bumps, but flexes your mental muscles as well. Yellowbrickroad (yes, one word) wants to be recognized as part of this rare breed, but it never quite gets there.
Teddy Barnes is a researcher determined to find out what led the entire population of a small New England town to wander off to a remote wilderness trail and brutally attack one another 70 years ago. With his wife, he puts together a small expedition to follow the route that the townsfolk took to learn exactly what occurred. This being a horror movie, it doesn’t take too long for weird things to start happening and as their trip goes on, the crew members are gradually driven mad by strange music reverberating through the hills.
I’ve heard Yellowbrickroad described as a more capable Blair Witch Project and while there are aspects of the film that fit that description, it’s not entirely accurate. Yes, spooky things happen whenever the crew camps for the night, eventually leading people to turn on each other. But the characters here are adults, introduced to us as capable individuals far removed from the sniveling whiners who cluelessly stomped through Blair Witch territory. So when madness starts spreading though the crew, their reactions are less angsty and more dangerously angry.
I hate when mommy and daddy and daddy and mommy and daddy fight!
Yellowbrickroad stays true to its title and throws a number of Wizard of Oz references throughout. But the references go further and deeper than that. There’s a lot more symbolism at work here, bordering on allegory, but it’s not clearly evident in one casual viewing. Since watching Yellowbrickroad, I've read online discussions on the meaning of the film that reference everything from Dante’s Inferno to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. And the thing is, they're all perfectly valid explanations, depending on your perspective.
It’s one of those movies that leaves itself open to interpretation and when you don’t expect that going in... frankly, it can be frustrating as hell. Because now I can’t enjoy the thrills and chills on a surface level, because there’s something obviously deeper at work here. The ending, in particular, is a head trip open to any number of interpretations. And then I become distracted and wonder: am I just too dumb to grasp the film’s meaning? Or did the film makers not do a good enough job of explaining it? *sighhhh* If I only had a brain...
I wish I could tell you what this means.
But this is, at least, a good looking film. Made for a reported $500,000, it looks (aside from one rather cheesy gore scene) like a movie with a budget at least ten times larger. This is, unquestionably, helped by the fact that most of the movie takes place in the woods - the perfect set for the low budget film maker. Yet it never looks cheap; it’s filled with images that are always clear, vivid and suitably creepy, which is a testament to the talents of directors Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton and cinematographer Michael Hardwick.
Ultimately, Yellowbrickroad is a visually appealing attempt at an intelligent horror film that never quite reaches the lofty goals to which it aspires. I’m not saying it’s a bad film, but viewers would be best served knowing having some idea of what to expect ahead of time.
THE VERDICT: Yellowbrickroad is GUILTY of deliberately scrambling viewers' brains, but at least it has the heart and courage to try something different.
