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Somewhere in rural New York State: Will (John Harvey Sheedy) is trying
to come to terms with the death of his wife (Sarah Santizo) in an accident
which he caused, but instead he's more and more losing himself - so much
so that his sister Katie (Amy Zubieta) comes looking after him ... and has
to actually pick him up at the police station, drunk as a skunk. Back at
Will's home, Katie is lured out of the house by some noises and walks
right into some pagan ritual, with a human sacrifice - who turns out to be
none other than her and Will's mother (Connie Neer). Katie makes an
escape, but only manage to lure the cultists to Will's house where they
are quick to take the two of them captive, to make them part of ever more
humiliating rituals which do damage on both their soul and sanity. Problem
is, the cultists, who seem to be by and large all the locals, are not just
a group of crazy people, but there's actually something sinister going on,
much more evil than just a mob gone insane ...
Now what immediately strikes one about The Burned Over
District, a cross of American gothic and folk horror, is its strong
and evocative imagery. And as impressive as its pictures are in
themselves, what really makes the film though is that they're not used as
an end to their own, let alone smother the story, but really serve as a
narrative device, and thus the film wastes very little time on
explanations, is at times almost dialogue free, and yet gets its key
points across rather effortlessly - and impressively so. And despite its
powerful visuals the film still gives its actors enough space to get their
characters across and carry the film, to make for a pretty awesome piece
of genre cinema.
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