This movie is rife with odd incongruities. Various story beats, bits of dialogue, and otherwise elements are at times characterized by being tropes, too neat and clean to be believable, too smart or clever for its own good, or too ham-handed. That includes, for example, the highly stylized visualization of characters' dreams, where a simple descriptive monologue would have sufficed. Another great example: exposition and background lore provided by characters by way of a documentary-style video, a college project - inserted very pointedly when it's seemingly needed most. On top of all this, first time writer-director Matthew Currie Holmes has managed to assemble some very noteworthy names and faces to appear in his feature debut, including Danny Glover, Colm Feore, Henry Czerny, and Dominique Provost-Chalkley.
Most peculiar of all is that I don't think any of this is an accident. We get some jarring imagery, an air of mystery, a minor sense of suspense, and a modestly absorbing story. But 'The curse of Buckout Road' is also full of overarching yet underhanded cheeky humor and a quirky playfulness. Moments of would-be emotional weight are glossed over in such a matter-of-fact fashion as to render them perfunctory. It's all a weird mish-mash of contrasting and clashing ideas, moods, and tactics.
I don't dislike it. I also don't entirely know what to make of it.
Holmes' screenplay seems strangely (staggeringly?) adaptable. This movie could have been a straightforward horror thriller. It could have been a straightforward horror comedy. It could be a drama, a psychological thriller, a B-movie romp - all with just a few tweaks. Instead, Holmes elected to more or less blend all these aspects into a single feature. It's an interesting method, and I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with it. However, these disparate aspects do not mesh together with complete success. In trying to do and be so much, 'Buckout Road' doesn't allow any facet to be realized with all its due. Thrills are diminished, shock is dampened, actors are restricted, and our fun is somewhat weakened.
None of this is to say it's bad. I like the narrative. While Glover, Czerny, and Feore aren't given a great deal to do by comparison, Provost-Chalkley defies the constraints of the production to turn in an entertaining, varied performance with all the dexterity we know she's capable of. I'm not especially familiar with star Evan Ross, yet even as his lead role is likewise delineated for him, I think he handles the spotlight well. And I actually really like the ending.
I just wish it were all more consistent.
You could do a lot worse. This is entertaining, and where it succeeds, it excels. Where it falls short, it's dubious. The greatest deficiency of all is just an overabundance of notions all forced into the same picture. I don't begrudge anyone for particularly disliking this - I want to like it more than I do. Ultimately, 'The curse of Buckout Road' is a horror-thriller for viewers receptive to a smorgasbord of storytelling approaches, and if you can abide the complications, this is a pretty good time.
