How far would you go to make your dreams come true? Would you beg, steal, or even murder? First time filmmaker, Jack Archer (Chase Williamson) tries to figure out what his threshold is Graham Denman's impressive Greenlight.
Jack is struggling with trying to get a feature film of his greenlit in between crummy PA gigs and soul crushing dinners with his girlfriend's disapproving family who thinks he's a bum. By pure luck, Jack gets an interview with a sleazy low budget film producer (a scene stealing Chris Browning) who takes to the young filmmaker and agrees to let him produce a script of his.
It seems like everything is finally going Jack's way until, after the first day of filming, his producer tells him that he needs to ask a big favor - he wants the last death scene in the film to be real. From then on, Greenlight becomes a twist-filled thrill ride that never lets up.
One thing you'll notice about Greenlight is that it's better acted than most indie horror films of this sort. Williamson and Browning in particular are excellent and have fantastic chemistry in their scenes together. Veteran scream queen, Caroline Williams, gets one of her better roles in years as the producer's wife who's also starring in the film within the film. It's also way better shot than most indie horror films, leaving me to wonder why something like this couldn't have played in theaters.
The script is also stronger than most films of this type, focusing more on character development and suspense than buckets of gore. In fact, there are moments that are downright Hitchcockian. While the pacing is typically good, there are a few moments towards the middle that drag a tad and some of the twists can get a little silly, but Greenlight is still a very impressive low budget horror offering and worthy of your time.
