Last Kind Words

First-time filmmaker Kevin Barker has managed to create an atmospheric ghost story with Last Kind Words (2012). The title, taken from an old folk song, where the "Kind" refers to something taken "in kind". It's not a bad little movie, just confusing as to the plot. You can tell Barker had all the right influences in his direction and loved the place where he was filming. However, the plot has trouble hanging together and key points are whisked out of thin air. Still, a good little film. Right now it's streaming on Netflix. There's even a dedicated Facebook page for it. The movie begins with Eli (Spencer Daniels) moving to rural Kentucky with his parents. You never know why they've decided to leave "the city" and return to the farm life, other than there's some mention of Eli's dad Bud having lost his job at a factory. They move into a mobile home on the land of Waylon (Brad Dourf), who lives in a picture-perfect big house. Eli instantly meets the mysterious red-haired Amanda (Alexia Fast) the moment he tries to take an apple from a tree. Bud, who proves to be an abusive father, scolds him for grabbing the apple, but Eli doesn't tell his father about Amanda. When Eli asks Waylon about Amanda, the older man warns him to stay away from her, claiming she's dangerous.

Much of the film consists of Eli wandering around the farm. You rarely see anything else, save the occasion trip to the store. While the land is beautifully photographed, the actor playing Eli just doesn't generate enough presence to make these scenes memorable. The actress playing Amanda, however, lights up the screen every time she steps into the frame. She has the right amount of ethereal personality to create a supernatural effect.

The other actors are all capable veterans. Brad Dourf, a character actor who sold the character of Piter De Vries in Dune, is amazing as Waylon. The man simply cannot give a bad performance. His name is in front and is the reason I watched Last Kind Words in the first place. I'd like to see more of Sarah Steele in the future; her brief appearances as Eli's city girl friend are memorable.

There's plenty of scares. All of which involve bodies hanging from a tree. The opening sequence involving a hunting tragedy is creepy and mysterious. You have to wait to the end of the movie to have it resolved. It's not the most satisfying of explanations, but works within the context of the film.

This film deserves a much higher score than it has. It a well acted, beautifully shot film with great atmosphere and a slightly different storyline. It is not a run of the mill gorefest and if you like severed limbs with buckets of blood and a boringly predictable soundtrack then look elsewhere. The publicity picture that goes with this film is totally misleading but I can understand that as this film is quite hard to categorise, watch this film and see what you think. OK, from here onwards is just padding as it seems one needs ten lines of text to get a review published. Why is this I wonder? There is only a small cast but each actor performs flawlessly ( is that how flawlessly is spelt? ) and the location and sets are wonderful shot in the early fall I suspect as the foliage is taking on lovely autumnal hues. Jeez I am really beginning to struggle for words now, all I wanted to do was write a couple of lines in praise of this underrated film and I end up having to wear my fingers to stumps trying to get to the magical ten lines, ahh it seems we are have achieved the rquired number of words so goodbye and happy viewing.

Okay this has to be the most depressing film I've ever seen. The story itself is tragic, but filled with annoying and grim music scores. The scenery is nice, and the film was trying to be scary but didn't work. It was a ghost love story but it took extremely ages to explain the background. The characters were unlikable, especially "pa" who is abusive to his son. The mother is a wet blanket.The only nice character was the dog! At least nothing bad happened to him.

17 year old Eli, his Mom and heavy drinking bully of a father move to a Kentucky farm, owned by a friend (Brad Dourif) of the dad. Eli meets an attractive teenage girl called Amanda but is soon warned to steer clear of her because she's dangerous. Soon the worlds of the living and of the dead intertwine in Eli's simple rural life. It is a bit slow going at times, there are several gaping plot holes and some instances of awkward silences, or in other words weak acting, during characters' conversations. However the plot and characters were sufficient to hold my interest, there a few reasonable scares and I liked the setting. Bit of a sad film overall, and I mean that in a positive way. Brad Dourif has starred in some horror classics, he's also been in some stinkers but given the material he gives a decent performance here. Certainly his fans should check this movie out.

A glance at the DVD cover and blurb of "Last Kind Words" would have anyone believing they were about to watch a sort of generic teen horror movie full of gore and jump scares but that's a long way from the truth. This is a slow-burn coming of age drama and a supernatural love story. It has a haunting, almost hypnotizing southern-Gothic sensibility that's really quite beautiful.

Eli, a 17 year old boy, finds himself moving with his abusive father and meek mother to the remote farmstead of family friend Waylon - played by the ever entertaining Brad Dourif - when the father loses his job. Eli ventures into the woods that surround the farm and meets a strange, alluring young girl called Amanda. As he begins to fall for Amanda he gradually uncovers a story of past tragic events on the farmstead and a rather sad haunting in the woods that goes all the way back to the days of the Underground Railroad.

The only real downfall of this otherwise beautiful movie is a script that's a little unsure of itself and ends up feeling a tad messy and confusing in parts. The pace might bore some - it really is a slow one - but personally I think it just added to the feels. I enjoyed it a lot and for an indie, it's a very strong piece of work.