FrightFest Halloween review – The Cull
A bloodied man is being dragged through the woods … some time earlier, Niall (Craig Russell) is released from prison after sixteen years, his conviction for murdering his mother overturned. He is now the owner of a cabin in the woods – in deepest Cornwall – and still has a lot of questions about his apparently complicated family history … which includes a much-mentioned former owner of the cabin, some local reprobates who have been squatting on the land, and a drug dealert (Ollie Mcfarlane) who claims to be his son. At first, Niall stays away from drink and drugs, though he’s told they’re about the only thing going on round here, and pores over his Bible. Circumstances nudge him back towards old ways, and his woes are exacerbated by a familiar campaign of chicken-murder and bloody-rune-posting, a visit from a maniac with a shotgun (Rory Wilton) and a Samhain rave on his property which it’s too late to call off. The bad scene also extends to perhaps-hallucinated antler-sporting figures chanting in the woods, ancient sacrifice stones, significant crows, unsettling music, a symbol daubed on things or worn as medallions, and a general sense that this already depopulated region is about to lose a lot more residents to shoot-outs, stabbings, sacrifice, burials in the woods and the angry spirits of the land manifesting as angry trees.
Written and directed by J.P. Davidson, The Cull has some Shane Meadows-ish takes on rural criminality – the shack of a local bar is a long way from the stereotype local boozer – and a lot of folk horror business but works because of Russell’s stoic performance as a hard bloke completely out of his depth, unable to distinguish between nuisances like the squatters and the primeval dangers of the land. It has a few strong special effects from Neill Gorton, though some of the wibbly-wobbly druggovision hallucinations are overfamiliar. The rough-hewn look of the film helps a lot, as does a nicely layered soundtrack of forest sounds and eerie music.
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