Campy Review : Refuge

Of course the opening is over the top. Just bludgeoning you with severity. A man's daughter is missing, and we're listening in on his call with the 911 operator who is trying to keep the man focused on logistics.

This exchange is a clear attempt to heighten your senses and generate an emotional attachment to the story. But our protagonist's pleas are just way over hammed. We're not watching Sean Penn in Mystic River, but by God he sure is trying hard to make us believe that.

It's fine, I can take a few hard punches and keep in going, but the urge to abandon the campy review is strong.

The mise-en-scène is compelling if you can dismiss it almost certainly is over-washing the bleakness with a cold and stark, undersaturated and over contrasty colour pallet. Still, I'm a sucker for a forest water fall scene. The flock of white egrets, though likely unintentional, helped balance the phone call.

During the lengthy stylized opening credits, the music booms with pathetic resonance. The man’s name is Sam, and he is now in a cabin in the woods, moving through rooms with a focused, steady and vengeful determination. He’s planning something.

It's not an altogether terrible setup, but the fucking phone call continues to overdo it, and his infernal pleating is cloying.

So from this relentless scene, we cut suddenly to a group of three friends who are clearly about to meet the bereaved at the cabin. Something unpleasant is in store for these hapless bastards, otherwise why would we be here?

The edit and writing is clumsier than a 2am drunk, and adjusting to the broship of this trio is emotionally disorienting. It appears to be some form of comedic relief, dudes making fun of their dude friends, with punches to the shoulder and a quick unsuspecting snap to the balls. But we haven't achieved any emotional tension for this transition and I'm starting to wonder if I should blame the director or the editor.

More on that. The camera movements and sound effects are just corny circus level art direction. I can't blame the actors just yet, the choices so far by the creative team are an incoherent mess. I suspect, after watching a few awkward line deliveries that bad acting will also be on this greasy menu.

So quickly it's clear that we have a Reservoir Dogs styled plot to smoke out a killer and extract a confession through any means necessary. This is the equivalent of bringing a black light to a motel room. If you don't have professionals on staff, the execution is going to be worse than bad.

Yeah, this plot is insanely poor. The sequences and scenes are full of errors. At one point Sam is openly speaking to his sister-in-law on speaker, trying to verify information, but none of his prisoners, Barry, Mike and Jay think to call out to her?

It’s not even mentioned to keep their mouths shut, even though they’re all strapped to chairs within whispering distance. A caller should have at least asked if anyone else was in the room, since being in a secluded cabin in the woods makes hearing a pin drop reasonable.

So a bunch of other random time wasting events happen. Honestly, the idea here was to write something fun and campy, but maybe I don't have the wherewithal to push through shitty movies. The frequent b-shot of a spinning ceiling fan breaks all hopes that there might be some intention behind these camera angles, and movements, scene cuts and plot twists. But there just isn’t. It's almost as if the director didn’t bother telling the cinematographer or art director what the movie was about.

So now Mike is suspect numero uno, and Sam decides to drag him into another room. There are one three suspects, one of the HAS to be the murderer, or what's the point.. and obviously it's Mike. So anyway, Sam wants some alone time, and the his prisoners are jumping from an anxious mix of pleading for their lives to seething vengeful anger, and it's all bad and incoherent and pocked full of mistakes.. but then a scene happens that was clearly someone's half baked idea of a cool shot, and I cannot understand why no one thought to squash this brain fart instead of give it life.

Sam grabs Mike by the mouth with his bare hand, and drags him into a separate room. Why Mike does not bite down in self-defence is a level of absurd confusion that can only be explained as a the entire cast and crew being drunk and high on crack cocaine.

And Scottish Sam. Sheesh. I have no doubt that he's a true Scott's man, because that origin adds absolutely nothing top the story, but his acting is so bad that it sounds like he’s faking his accent. Serious... the real Scottish accent in this movie sounds terrible.

As we delve deeper there are a few silver linings for my cerebral investment. The movie is an excellent example of how poor scene building produces the reverse intended emotional effect.

Sam beats Mike for a confession, and the sound guy attempts to build tension with mounting buzzing resonant sound effects, while the camera man slowly zooms in to an uncomfortable distance attempting to increase the general malise. , but all i want to do is laugh.

Maybe they should have tried to write some comic relief here to invoke feelings of sympathy for these characters. There is not ethical or moral question here, though the writer or director is trying to make you believe there is one. It's just some unintentional slap stick. A person who tripped and fell down the side of a hill and is still flipping and flopping through the thicket to this very day.

And I guess let's talk about the dialogue.. sweet Christ. I suspected this movie would be more about challenging myself to maintain attention and to complete the tasks I set out on…. But the dialogue is making me abandon all hope.

Here’s a ridiculous exchange

“I got an idea, maybe we can chew through this tape?”

Ok genius, or maybe just rip it apart with a quick tug?

Oof… so contrived, everything is so contrived.

Finally Jay unties himself, seriously ripping off a single layer of duct tape … the effort so monumental I’m almost surprised he could manage it, but then he leaves his friend in the basement.

Jay just rumbles through the house, and tries to escape by himself, with Sam in hot pursuit. Or should i say in massively delayed pursuit. You’d think you’d jump to attention as two of your prisoners are strapped down in a room you haven’t checked on in 20 minutes.

Barry is about to talk to his wife, but he’s laughing hysterically on drugs.

Mike getting shot in the head, and his brother saying “Mike listen to me, are you ok?” Makes no sense.

So Mike is the murderer everyone… it was him all along. He also mustered someone else from their childhood.

I’m done… not all posts can be winners right? I’m done here. I just can’t find the motivation or the discipline.