Tess (Brande Roderick) has run away from home, and especially from her father (Will Roberts) when she was a teen, without ever looking back. But now dad has died, and she pretty much finds herself forced to return since he has left her everything, first and foremost of course his winery. So Tess and her son Walter (Keaton Roderick Cadrez) pay the visit to the winery to figure what best to do with it, and are rather frostily greeted by Tess's aunt Margaret (Carolyn Hennesy), who with some justification fears Tess will sell the winery and thus she'll lose her home. At the same time of course, Margaret does very little to ingatiate her to Tess. Farmhand Joe (Casey King) on the other hand does everything to make her and Walter feel welcome, even if he has ulterior motives as he wants Tess to support him in building the winery back to former glory. He even goes so far to try and seduce Tess to that end, even if she's almost old enough to be his mother. Tess is almost swayed though, if it wasn't for these dark memories from back when, dark memories that concern her and her father ...

Of late, the local Sheriff (Texas Battle) snoops around the winery, and that's not only because he finds Tess attractive (and vice versa), but also because two people (Christie Nicole Chaplin, Chris Schellenger) have disappeared in the neighbourhood lately and all clues lead to the place. We the audience of course know the Sheriff's hunch is righter than right - and that means, without knowing it, Tess and Walter are in mortal danger ...

A pretty cool horror mystery with Southern gothic unercurrents that, despite giving away quite a bit literally in the first scene, profits from a nice build-up that might be on the slowburn side but that way also creates tremendous tension. And of course, a very elegant, atmosphere-heavy directorial effort that makes the best use of its location only helps in that respect - but that said, when the movie goes to the jugular, the camera doesn't exactly turn away. And add to this a competent cast playing well fleshed out characters, and you've got yourself a pretty awesome horror-thriller.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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