JP Nunez
I was really excited to watch Brightwood. I first heard about it when my fellow Horror Obsessive writer Sean Parker ranted and raved about it after watching the film at Salem Horror Fest a few months ago, so I was pretty intrigued right from the start. I wanted to see it for myself, and when I got a chance to check out the trailer, my excitement for the movie went through the roof. It looked like a mind-bending sci-fi chiller that would combine The Twilight Zone with a slasher flick, so naturally, it garnered a pretty high spot on my most-anticipated list. I requested a screener as soon as I could, and when I finally pressed play on it, I was sure I’d be in for a good time.
Brightwood was written and directed by Dane Elcar, and it stars Dana Berger and Max Woertendyke. It’s about Jen and Dan, a couple on the brink of divorce, as they go for a jog around a local pond. At first, this seems just like any other day, but soon enough, these characters begin to experience some strange phenomena.
The trail has mysteriously disappeared, and no matter where they try to go, they always find themselves back at the edge of the pond. On top of that, they’re also being stalked by a mysterious killer, so they actually have to overcome two hurdles. They need to find a way out of this mysterious loop, and they have to do so before their stalker gets his hands on them.
On paper, that sounds like an amazing premise, and for the first 25 minutes or so, I was totally on board. I thought Dana Berger and Max Woertendyke did a really good job playing Jen and Dan, so I came to like these characters pretty quickly. I wanted to see where their story would go, and I found myself rooting for them to find a way through their marital troubles.
But as Brightwood progressed, my love for Jen and Dan began to wane. They just became more and more unlikable, so by the time the credits began to roll, I had more or less stopped caring about them entirely. Dan is a selfish alcohol and porn addict who doesn’t seem to care much about his wife, and Jen is more or less defined by her anger towards her husband. Granted, it appears that she has every reason to be mad at him, but since that’s all there is to the character, it’s just not very compelling.
Then, at around the midway point, something happens, and this couple undergoes a pretty drastic transformation. I can’t say how or why without spoiling an important plot development, but their whole dynamic changes, and my reasons for disliking them basically faded away. But unfortunately, those reasons were just replaced by new ones, so my overall feelings for these characters stayed almost entirely the same. I still didn’t like them, so it was hard for me to get emotionally invested in their story.
On top of that, I also had some big issues with the horror in Brightwood. Like I said before, the trailer made me think this would be a mind-bending sci-fi chiller in the vein of The Twilight Zone, but I actually found it pretty pedestrian. Sure, the film takes some twists and turns, but I didn’t find any of them particularly surprising. It was all exactly what I expected given the premise and the trailer, and there were even a few things I was able to see from a mile away. That predictability gave the movie a very “been there, done that” kind of feel, so I just wasn’t wowed by it the way I thought I’d be.
Last but not least, I want to talk a bit about the killer as well. I thought he was going to add a cool slasher twist to the story, but that’s not at all the case. Instead, for most of the movie, he’s more of a vague inconvenience than a real threat, and even when he is a genuine danger to Dan and Jen, those moments are simply too infrequent to have much of an impact. In fact, on the whole, I think he contributes to the “been there, done that” vibe of the film, so I found him to be a pretty disappointing villain.
All that being said, I don’t want to give you the wrong idea. Brightwood isn’t all bad, and I even suspect that a big part of my problem with it isn’t really the film’s fault. Rather, I think the trailer gives away some key information that you’re better off not knowing, so if you want to check this movie out, I suggest going in as blind as possible. I can’t be 100% sure, but I think it’ll make your viewing perience a lot better than mine was.
What’s more, I also have to give writer/director Dane Elcar credit for the clever way he handles a lot of the details of this story. They’re very meticulously planned out, and many of them even come full circle in a way that reminds me of Insidious and Insidious: Chapter 2.
But unfortunately, that’s not enough to save the film, so I’m sad to say that I wasn’t a fan of Brightwood. It might be worth checking out if you haven’t seen the trailer, but if you have, I think you’re better off skipping this one. It has unlikeable characters, a weak villain, and fairly predictable twists and turns, so if you’re looking for some good new horror to watch, I suggest you look elsewhere.
Brightwood is scheduled to hit VOD and DVD on August 22.
