Bright Hill Road

After watching Bright Hill Road I knew it would have a low rating. Maybe it's because I'm a recovering alcoholic, but I loved this film, even though it was predictable.

Following a traumatic workplace accident, a young woman placed on leave decides to visit her family across the country and decides to stop over a motel for a bit of rest and relaxation, but the longer she stays in the strange room the more she finds her sanity slip away as the events of the past continually come back to haunt her.

There was a lot to really like with this one. The fact that it turns a rather simplistic and formulaic approach into a rather fun and gripping thriller. Shown to be grappling with addiction issues and an unresolved grip on the past before being afflicted by the trauma while at work, we're given a nice backstory to understand her psychosis from the start of the film. This goes a long way to understanding how the stay at the motel begins to affect her as the past trauma and grief over what happened in her life begins to get more pronounced, tying nicely together with her addiction issue to create a confounding setup that tests her sanity quite well. This builds up rather well as time goes on where she stays at the hotel long enough to have lost all semblance of reality based on the situation she finds herself trapped in and the mounting stress of being alone at the motel which combines together into an appealing, hallucinatory-styled series of scenes throughout here. This all builds ominously throughout the middle part of the film where it gets far darker in terms of on-screen imagery and the threat to her mental state that it's far more chilling than expected and serves quite nicely as a result. There isn't much really slowing it down, but it tends to grind to a halt when the creepy neighbor is also shown to be at the motel. While it admirably shifts before whether or not he's real or part of her psychotic mindset, the fact that they're scenes together aren't that crucial to the storyline and tend to feel like padding to stretch the running time out. The finale, as well, seems a little rushed as it seems to just rush into a resolution that doesn't entirely feel earned based on the build-up before-hand as this is figured out where it's going quite early on with very little of the moral intended to be taught being applied. Still, this isn't truly detrimental as these factors only end up lowering the film just slightly as a result.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.

I believe the screenwriter or screenwriters were drunk the time they wrote this because it's mostly incoherent with obvious Scare Tactics that failed. And above all it's really repetitive and dull, dull, dulls. Sloppy uninspired Direction. Whatever they were trying for they missed the mark. The actors did okay with what they had to work with but even an excellent actor couldn't do anything with this lousy script. Very disappointed in what could have been a promising film. Boooooring. And the twist ending was anything but a Twist like a really bad immature Twilight Zone episode that's way too long and no surprises. Nuff said.

Firstly, Siobhan Williams is outstanding. Her portrayal of an alcoholic is brilliant. Anyone who has had a close relationship with someone who is addicted to alcohol will recognise the denial. I can guarantee that if an alcoholic and the person they lived with saw this film together they would all be split 50/50. The alcoholic would say 'That's not me', the non-alcoholic would say 'That's you'. If you haven't experienced alcoholism this film would give you a great insight into the problem. The story line is good. Enough twists to keep you well entertained. The acting brilliant and the photography and direction well above par. If you're looking for something to entertain and inform you, this is a great film. If your're looking for some laughs and giggles, steer clear.

So it was incredibly refreshing to see a thrilling flick with such a unique storyline. But on the other end, I feel like this is kind of its downside as well because that gave it just so much potential that it didn't deliver on. It was OK overall. My only real gripe is this, I still didn't really understand why in the world she stopped and stayed at this boarding house. Because you know, that's generally what we do in America when we're on a road trip, is stop at a boarding house for some time I guess.