29 of 31 Horror Films I've Never Seen 2016: The Gift (2000)

When I was in High School and I started binging on Horror films I was given a copy of The Evil Dead.  Needless to say, that crazy film hooked me for life.  I've watched almost all of Sam Raimi's films since and have a lifelong obsession with Bruce Campbell thanks to it.  Among his post Army of Darkness films are a number of intrigues entries (as well as a few duds) but whatever you say about Raimi you can't say he doesn't have a certain way about his films that makes them uniquely his.  Even when he's treading more studio friendly ground there are unmistakable Raimi moments.  Whether it's that yellow '73 Oldsmobile, a shot of a full moon on a foggy night, or strangely slapstick humor in otherwise frightening situations, a Sam Raimi film is a Sam Raimi film.  That's what makes the Billy Bob Thornton/Tom Epperson penned The Gift so interesting.

Cate Blanchette stars as Annie, a single mother with a unique gift of extrasensory perception in a small southern town called Brixton.  She spends her days offering card readings to locals in exchange for donations of food and supplies.  After a woman goes missing, the investigators turn to Annie and her gift as a last result to try and find her.

While the plot synopsis of the film is relatively simple, what makes the gift so intriguing is the sense of Southern Gothic mixed with Raimi's stylistic elements.  A good deal of the script is spent getting to know the characters who, as people in small towns  are, have a good deal of dark secrets under their well meaning mannerisms.  Complex issues of abuse and mental disturbance abound on the periphery but all of the sub plots combine toward the conclusion making for a truly complete story.  Giovanni Ribisi shines particularly as Buddy, the local mechanic who suffers from serious mental trauma surrounding his father.

One can really feel the small town aesthetic attributable to both Raimi and Thornton's youth.  I would almost be so bold as to call it a spiritual sibling to Thornton's Sling Blade if in setting alone.  Regardless of the large star ridden ensemble cast there is a truthfulness to the characters that reads marvelously.  I found myself stunned by how much I enjoyed actors that I normally don't think much of, like Keanu Reeves and Katie Holmes.  Reeves as a truly despicable wife abusing redneck was fascinating to watch and the amount of animosity that he instills is perfect to the character.  All in all, it fits well thematically as a follow up to A Simple Plan (which starred Thornton), in it's exploration of the darkness inherent in all people.  Not as outrageous as his earlier works, but still a worthy film to the Raimi oeuvre.

Jug Face: 23 of 31 Horror Movies I've Never Seen

I've never quite understood "the South."  I mean, I've learned about the Civil War, as most children do growing up in the USA, and I've certainly been to my fair share of Southern States, but there is something about the culture that I am completely disconnected from.  It's a weird divide that you most frequently find in arguments where ideology is concerned.  I will say, though, that many a great writer has come from the South.  William Faulkner, Harper Lee, John Grisham, Truman Capote, Anne Rice, Tom Wolfe; all come to mind.  It's that strange Gothic quality that if you transposed it to Europe, you could just change the weather and find some serious similarities.  How does that transpose to film?  Well, Jug Face might be a good example of just that transposition.

Set in a backwater in a nameless southern region where the light has a beautiful golden hue to it, Jug Face tells the story of a strange group of people living pin the woods and worshiping a pit.  From the opening credits we learn that in an older time, the ancestors of these people were claimed by The Pox until a mysterious Pit washed them clean of disease in exchange for human sacrifice (the first of which just so happened to be a priest).  From then on the folk carried on the tradition.  A seer throws clay jugs with the faces that the Pit requires to continue living unabated.  Unfortunately, avoiding sacrifice has it's consequences, and Ada (played with a tremendous energy by Lauren Ashley Carter) discovers that not only is she the next Jug Face, but that her unborn child (conceived out of incest with her brother) is also desired by the pit.  Driven by the need to protect her unborn, Ada hides the Jugs and the Pit starts killing people with impunity.

The story is told much like a piece of Gothic Southern fiction and almost feels like it would have worked better as a novella or short story.  What the film does very well is in it's horrific take on the what goes on in those rural backwoods.  Anyone who lives in more urban settings has had those moments where you see "those people from out there."  It's true, there is a curious fascination that comes with getting a glimpse of a culture you don't understand.  It's even mimicked at one point in the film where a character says "We don't know what crazy things those people are up to."  Perhaps, worshiping a human eating pit is a little bit far, but it's that twisted macabre that elevates the story above most other low budget horror films.

The film is also quite inventive with it's use of light and point of view.  We never see exactly what comes out of the pit, since we are only allowed to see through it's eyes, but we know that whatever it is comes from deep in the Earth and really likes to eviscerate whoever it comes across.  The pit is almost constantly full of blood throughout the movie, leaving a very unsettling bright red to the dark brown clay like dirt in which it rests.

The film has a sort of anti-climax that makes me wonder what exactly was the point, or if there even is a point.  This is probably the weakest thing about the film, as I was left feeling that basically there is no hope for these people but to continue killing their own at the whims of a creepy tree root monster in a bloody watery pit.  I suppose one can argue that it's a morality tale about accepting the burden of sacrifice/martyrdom, but at the end of the day, I wanted to see that monster get his.  Fortunately, the film is not too long, has some incredible production design and stand up performances from the supporting cast to make due for the aforementioned weak points.  Definitely worth a watch, but probably not much repeat value.  In all honesty I don't think I'll ever be able to look at deep rural folks the same way ever again.

3 out of 5 skulls.