INTO THESE WOODS // A FILM REVIEW OF "BLACKWOOD"

BY MATEO MORENO

BLACKWOOD, written and directed by Chris Danfield, is a mash-up of genres. It's a classic western, both in look and feel, but adds in horror elements while sprinkling in racial tensions of the old west. It's a lot to throw into an indie film with a micro budget. Some of it works, much of it doesn't, and that goes for the cast as well. Tanajsia Slaughter plays Dowanhowee, a Lakota woman on the move and headed to The Black Woods. She enters an old west town, killing a cowboy to get a horse for her travels. In that same town, Dutch Wilder (Bates Wilder) and his gang have a score to settle with a pair that owes him money. Instead of collecting it, the pair (played by Glenn Morshower & Kara Rainer) offer him something much more interesting: Gold, or at least the search for gold. Wallace Price (Morshower) joins them on the quest, which pretty quickly runs the same path as Dowanhowee.

In these woods lay a dangerous creature: The Wendigo. Dowanowee warns of the evil that surrounds them, and they end up having to work together, but can they work together while still on their original quest? The best thing about BLACKWOOD is the beautiful cinematography, which is lush and grand. Even on a small budget, the old west town has a charming feel to it and the costumes all look solid. But the horror elements is where it all goes to hell. Fight sequences seem to not have any urgency or excitement and the Wendigo itself is a failed vision from the start. Some of the more subtle performances, like Slaughter and Morshower, work fine and even though Wilder's range isn't exactly huge, he's often pretty effective. But most of the rest of the cast swing wild pitches with their performances and strike out one by one, especially Wilder's gang and the Native tracker Casey Birdinground who's working with the white gang. It's a shame, because there's some good DNA in the idea of BLACKWOOD. But in the end, it falters under its own weighted ambitions.

GRADE: C-

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Chris Canfield STARRING Bates Wilder, Glenn Morshower, Stelio Savante, Tanajsia Slaughter, George Thomas Mansel, Casey Birdinground, David 'Shark' Fralick. NOW PLAYING IN SELECT THEATRES AND ON DIGITAL AND ON-DEMAND.