Resurrection County (2008)
Review by Dana R. Davidson
Like gore? Like death and violence? Like stories about who done who wrong and revenge? About taking care of your own, loyalty, and just how wrong things can go? Then you will like Resurrection County.
Too many times in life someone does a bad deed, resulting in the community rallying around the victim, wanting to right the wrong that has been done. Then at the first chance of an out, at the first chance of a lie on the other person’s part, all those people who were all for righting the wrong disappear, taking the out, proving that they lack the integrity to stand by their friends, their family, their community, their word. Instead of making the right decision to fix the problem they continue on with their happy life like nothing ever happened. Forgetting the victim they supposedly cared about. Forgetting that the person who did the wrong needs to be banished, thrown away like the trash that they are. After all, the law isn’t always on your side and not everyone has the physical or emotional capacity to fight for themselves, especially the dead.
Too many times that happens, too many times people are too willing to forget the atrocities that another has committed. Not in this movie. Nothing is forgotten and everything is avenged. Chock full of great lines like, “We take care of our own.” As communities should and, “You can’t hold onto your hate or you will lose your wits,” as well as, “Do what you need to kill the pain.”
The story: Four tourists, a brother and sister and their significant others, enter Resurrection County to go camping. The sister is pregnant (no, not by her brother). Brother is pissed at his best friend for getting his sister pregnant. So, best friend and brother go on an ATV ride through the back country, where they get lost. They enter a “do not trespass” area where they meet a back country man with a shot gun who is going to let them leave but not before another back county man drives up and shit goes down. This is when the real fun starts. Someone gets shot and the rest of the movie is set in motion. I’m not going to give too much away but let’s say that this movie is brutal and makes no apologies for any of the actions. What I will tell you is that the end is not disappointing. I was not disappointed at all. After all isn’t life about trust, about taking care of those you love? Trust. You don’t trust those who choose to keep loyalty to the one who is the wrong doer. You don’t trust those who refuse to do the right thing. You dispose of all that are a part of the painful and terrible event no matter how much is lost along the way, you right the wrong. That is exactly what this movie does, regardless of whose side you are on. For the record, I was on the side of the hicks. It’s refreshing to see a movie that forces me to take a side, to feel something, to not be able to stop watching, to react.
From the opening credits this movie was like rock n’ roll on film. Brutal, hardcore, unapologetic, interesting, combined with the back country life of crazy hicksville. Are their problems? Sure, the scene where the redhead tells her boyfriend that she is pregnant totally played like a soap opera but I am aware that the filmmakers were trying to give us background story and make us specifically like those two characters. It didn’t’ make me like them, though. In fact, I really didn’t like her pretty boy boyfriend, but that is personal taste. I also found myself rooting for the residents of Resurrection County and not the tourists. I wanted the residents to get their vengeance, I wanted them to win. I wanted them to get their closure by brutally killing the tourists. Bravo to the filmmaker for making me feel that way. That being said, the few parts that feel unnatural, soap opera-like, and out of place are absolutely redeemed in the pure brutality, the relentlessness, of the rest of the movie. Hell, there is even a part in the beginning where a naked hick man comes running out of his house with an assault rifle, and I’m saying, HELL YEAH, THIS MOVIE ROCKS!
Technically I have no complaints, the editing, music, set design, costumes, makeup, all coincided with the story they were telling, the acting was pretty good too.
Resurrection County is brutal and effective and really good for “torture porn.” You should definitely watch it.
Visit Resurrection County’s Official Site
Watch the Resurrection County trailer:
Popularity: 3% [?]
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