Worth: $13.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Faith Kearns, Vernon Taylor, Spencer Weitzel, Aaron Pyle
Intro:
… a satisfyingly unsettling film.
Written and directed by Michael Escalante, The Burial takes what could have just been a thriller tinged with family drama and before the end credits roll, mutates it into a paranoid folk horror.
The film opens up on Keith (Spencer Weitzel), a scruffy, sobbing man cradling himself in the woods. Next to him, a shotgun. Before the audience is given chance to piece together what has happened, we’re introduced to Brian (Vernon Taylor), Keith’s estranged brother, who has decided to take the day off work with his partner Molly (Faith Kearns). It’s possibly the second worst mistake he’ll make that day. The worst is answering a call from Keith.
Keith needs help from Brian, and it requires his brother travelling to a cabin in the woods. Brian is immediately sceptical and wants Molly to have no part in whatever is going to go down. Molly, seemingly too sunny to realise when she’s not wanted, feels that it’ll be a great opportunity not only to finally meet Keith, but to also coerce the brothers to rebuild their tattered relationship.
Once the couple arrive and Molly has gone to bed, the truth of what support Keith needs comes to light. While firing off a few rounds during the day, Keith has accidently shot someone taking a hike and now wants Brian to help him bury the body. Meanwhile, Molly, left on her own in the cabin, appears to be harassed by something unseen in the shadows. It’s in these moments that Escalante shows what he can do on a modest budget, with sound design to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand to attention.
As is often the case, when it looks like things couldn’t get any worse, along comes Lenny (Aaron Pyle), a smiling stranger looking for medical assistance. Pyle’s performance brings a threatening air to the film as Lenny becomes more unhinged while recounting the bloody history of the woods that surround them.
With a slightly large budget, in a different universe, there’s nothing stopping The Burial from being pushed out by A24 and slapped with the ‘heightened horror’ label. It’s an unnerving piece that plays true to the adage that just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. Escalante offers up no real explanation for the events that unfurl, aside from clues dropped in through the course of Lenny’s monologues. ‘There are things about this body I’m still getting used to,’ he says cryptically. There’s something in the woods, something that feeds off the hate and violence in the world and Keith chose a bad day to take pot shots at cans.
Some will likely be disappointed with the film’s finale, which starts promisingly with an axe fight (!) before wading into a more nebulous resolution. However, given everything that came before, including Escalante’s commitment to slow brewing fear, most should find The Burial a satisfyingly unsettling film.
