Reckoning

The Creed is the law of the mountain. Plot twists that smack you in the face. Totally fictitious unbelievable plot that binds you start to finish.

But you must pay attention to details to follow the story.

Highly recommended.

Very satisfying to see the payback, and from someone you'd least expect. And an Interesting look at the backwoods, wow, Deliverance on steroids, I sure hope it's nothing like that in real life.

The Devil to Pay: Set in a remote region of Appalachia which is essentially self-governing, there's a Creed (Covenant) but stronger folks as always bend the rules. Lemon (Danielle Deadwyle) lives a fraught, marginal existence, her husband is missing, she's caring for her son when two heavies arrive. She is summoned to the house of a local strong woman (the heavies "mind" her child); she finds out that her husband owes the woman Tommy (Catherine Dyer) a debt and she now has twi days to make good on that or she and her son will be killed. She searches for her husband, gets a loan of a car in return for delivering vitriol to a strange Cult who live outside of the Creed. The vitriol is to bve used in a ceremony of passing on leadership. Some real Folk Horror vibes *both verbal and visual) here with the Cult's devotion to Nature, sacrifice and rebirth.. Not so much a road movie, rather a mountain movie as Lemon makes her way across hill and dale until she makes a horrifying discovery. But her quest/ordeal is far from over as betrayal and double dealing is exposed. The scenery here is beautiful but can quickly turn threatening as you transform from searcher to prey. The Cult are odd and responsible for some of the most gruesome scenes but their actions have an internal logic. Some other extremely violent sequence on the part of both Lemon and her opponents contribute to the disturbing nature of the film. Much of the horror is psychological though as lemon tries to fulfill Tommy's demands and find ways to outwit her. Reminds me in parts of Winter's Bone, the Wrong Turn reboot and Ozark but it is very much it's own film. Written and Directed by Ruckus Skye and Lane Skye. On Netflix. 8.5/10.

The story unfolds well, keeping you interested all the way through.

The main character, Lemon, is perfect; a seemingly vulnerable woman at the start turning into a strong lioness protecting her cub.

There is not a lot of dialogue, but you understand exactly the history and context that has brought Lemon into her current perilous situation as well as how it all plays out.

The backwoods people and their ancient ways brings the latent horror and violence that exists in films such as Deliverance. The ex-city dwellers frankly weird cult, brings a different type of horror shown best in films such as The Wicker Man.

Sounds odd, but it all ties in very well, making this a very compelling story.

This was an unexpected pleasure. A film with a cast of no name actors who carry out their roles in award winning fashion.

This seemingly quiet Appalachian landscape is hardly the place one would think to find an African American woman alone with a child who knows and has abided by the code of the hills...until she is deceived and used as a vessel to start a war.

Danielle Deadwyler, who had a hand in production, turns in a winning performance as our reluctant hero waiting for her man to come home.

The direction , editing and script by Lane and Ruckus Skye along with the photography of Sherman Johnson give this backwoods tale a look that you can't turn away from.

Each character no doubt had back-stories that could have been looked into a bit more. But the sparsely worded script did the job.

Add this to your must-see list. I'd watch it again!