BONEHILL ROAD
(director/writer: Todd Sheets; cinematographer: Todd Sheets; editor: Todd Sheets; music: Arborea, Matt Cannon, Justin Burning, Toshiyuki Hiraoka, Jupiter 8; cast: Eli Degreer (Emily Stevens), Ana Rojas-Plumberg (Eden Stevens), Linnea Quigley (Suzy), Millie Millan (Tina), Dilynn Fawn Harvey (Lucy), Douglas Epps (Coen Anders), Gary Warner Kent (Rhett Tanner); Runtime: 87; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Todd Sheets/Amanda Payton/Mem Ferda; Wild Eye Releasing; 2017
“Gory but suspenseful low-budget cultist indie lycan horror film.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Veteran horror film director Todd Sheets (“Dreaming Purple Neon”/”Fear of the Dark”) is director, writer, editor, cinematographer and co-producer of this gory but suspenseful low-budget cultist indie lycan horror film. He has for a number of years produced his own films, which have attracted a loyal audience and earned him respect in the horror film community for making decent gory films, but he is little known in mainstream circles. This one, supposedly his most mature, is a comic-lite homage film to such horror favorites asThe Howling, Silver Bullet and American Werewolf In London. This is my first viewing of a Sheets film.Emily (Eli DeGeer) and her daughter Eden (Ana Rojas-Plumberg) have escaped their abusive heavily tattooed patriarch (Aaron Brazier), only to find themselves in a broken down car and isolated in the back country on Bonehill Road. They seemed to have gone from the frying pan into the fire, as they have gotten themselves into a more dangerous life-threatening situation–being hunted now by werewolves in the woods. Every thing they do seems to make things worse, as even after they seek shelter in the first empty house they discover, they only find themselves trapped with a psychotic killer, Coen Anders (Douglas Epps), holding captive three female hostages (Millie Milan, Dilynn Fawn Harvey, and Linnea Quigley). As the knife-wielding lunatic tortures the ladies, the werewolves have followed the mother and daughter and have surrounded the house. We’re asked to choose which is worse, confronting the sadistic madman or the killer werewolves, and to wonder if the humans have it in them to work together to survive. As the carnage unfolds in the second half, the mother and daughter characters are so well developed that we can feel their pain. By using successfully low-tech special effects (which thrilled me, thanks to the practical SFX handled by gore master Joe Castro) the movie does its job of giving fans of werewolf films what they have come to expect from such a traditional bloody horror film. It held my attention throughout, was competently filmed and acted, the costumes were terrific, the music was chilling, and the gore was there but wasn’t the only thing you can take away from the B movie that mattered. Fans of horror movies should note that cast as a victim is the celebrated scream queen Linnea Quigley.
REVIEWED ON 10/27/2018 GRADE: B