Sean Parker
Dane Elcar’s Brightwood was one of the highlights for me at Salem Horror Fest this year. Granted, I don’t know that I saw a single lousy movie while attending the festival. However, Brightwood stuck out as an off-the-beaten-path original that excelled thematically while also a genuinely disturbing horror portrait of a doomed relationship. It’s sort of the opposite of an anti-rom-com, trapping two people at a pond where infinite versions of themselves begin to populate. Elcar’s snapshot of two people at the worst point in their marriage, eviscerating and cannibalizing each other through vicious rhetoric, may not seem it, but it was very much inspired by a few classic films that both reside in The Criterion Collection’s catalog: Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend and Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker.
If you’ve never seen Stalker, the movie is currently ranked number forty-three on BFI’s greatest films of all time. It’s an exceptionally grounded science fiction film with a haunting history. The story of the Stalker character taking a writer and a professor through the contaminated “zone” is as atmospheric and ambient as films get and bolsters many underlying themes about religion and life in the U.S.S.R. at the time it was made in 1979. It becomes even more metaphorical when they arrive at “the room,” a place that reputationally has the power to grant wishes.
Where Godard’s Weekend may seem to fit a bit more elegantly into Brightwood’s character study, when Elcar mentioned Stalker, something in my head just clicked. The gorgeous yet harrowing environment, the unseen threat imposed, and the capability for these characters to wish themselves into alternate versions of themselves made sense.
I had a blast talking with Elcar and Brightwood’s charming cast, Dana Berger and Max Woertendyke, in Salem a couple of months ago, and I really loved this independent offering they’ve pushed forth. I knew, without hesitation, they would be a ton of fun to have on The Horror Obsessive Podcast, and I was emphatically correct. The hour Brendan and I spent talking about Stalker and Brightwood with this terrific group is another highlight in my 2023, and I can’t wait to see the film again with new perspectives. Elcar and company clue us in on some funny on-set stories, from garden snakes to the amount of bug spray needed to shoot in the woods, a typo in the credits that nearly caused a conniption, and why Dana’s character calls Max’s character “Buzzy,” out of nowhere at one point.
Staff writer Brendan Jesus joins the podcast this week, filling in for JP Nunez, who will return next episode. Brendan and I lead into the show by letting you know a little more about our writer, who recently published a Larry Fessenden icons piece we discuss, as well as the rabbit hole obsession both of us went through with Bruce Campbell. And discuss Horror Obsessive’s two new weekly features, Slasher Saturdays and Trash Cinema (aka So Bad it’s Good) Thursdays.
Please join us in getting lost in the (Bright)woods on this episode. It’s an absolute blast. And join JP Nunez and me in two weeks for the debate of the century: Conjuring vs. Insidious.
Brightwood is available for pre-order through Kino Lorber’s website. The film will release on August 22. Stalker is available to stream on Criterion Channel.
