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Autumn Road
USA 2021
produced by Xander McCabe, Eric Floyd (executive), Mark Schultz (executive) for The Last Motel
directed by Riley Cusick
starring Lorelei Linklater, Riley Cusick, Justin Meeks, Lar Park-Lincoln, George Welder, Maddy-Lea Hendrix, Ranger Lerway, Jonas Lerway, Jordan Wright, Kerry McCormick, Maya Alexander, Sydney Aucreman, Christian Baker, Kenneth Fisher, Buddy Love, Madison Pine, Matt Williams
written by Riley Cusick, music by Braden Pottle
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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Youngsters Charlie (Ranger Lerway) and Vincent (Jonas Lerway), the
twins from the local scarehouse, are best friends with Winnie (Maddy-Lea
Hendrix), a girl their age. And while Vincent's clearly the alpha male of
the two twins, Winnie likes Charlie more - so much so that they start to
make out in a hearse on the scarehouse premises - when suddenly, Winnie
has an allergic shock, and as Charlie doesn't know what to do, Winnie
dies. Vincent promises to take care of the body, but has Charlie swear to
secrecy - and thus, the girl's disappearance remains a mystery, until ... 10
years later, Winnie's sister wannabe actress Laura (Lorelei Linklater),
who has just lost her best friend in a freak car accident, returns to her
hometown, where it's almost inevitable that she runs into Charlie and
Vincent (now both played by Riley Cusick), who by now actually run the
scarehouse between themselves - and not without friction. Laura feels
drawn to them, and only in part because she wants to find out what has
happened to her sister, and two brothers feel drawn to her as well - and
just like her sister, Laura prefers the humble and klutzy but nice Charlie
over the more flamboyant but also irritable Vincent. Thing is, Charlie's
disturbingly spinning out of control of late, which goes from firing all
the scarehouse personnel to beating up the town bully with a crowbar to
actually killing someone. And he has special plans for Laura, too ... What's
so interesting about this movie is that while it has the perfect look of a
horror movie, features plenty of suspense scenes, and employs several
genre mainstays, it actually plays much more like a psycho-drama and thus
puts its emphasis not so much on scare tactics and shock value but on
character arcs and backstory. And thanks to a clever script that despite
its tragic story never fails to entertain, and on-point performances by
all involved, this approach actually works like a charm, making this a
very watchable horror/drama hybrid.
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