Staunton HIll

Directed by: Cameron Romero

Starring: Kathy Lampkin, Cristen Coppen, David Rowntree, Kiko Ellsworth

Synopsis:Set in 1969, Staunton Hill sees five young friends hitch-hiking their way to Washington to take part in a political rally. After being unceremoniously dumped by their previous ride at a backwoods garage, they accept a lift from the amiable Qintin. Unfortunately, Qintin’s truck breaks down and the gang take refuge for the night in a barn. The next morning they meet the owners of the barn and surrounding farm who seem very hospitable – but it soon becomes clear that they have a sinister agenda...



Review:Whatever else you glean from watching Staunton Hill , one thing is clear: Cameron Romero isn’t going to be riding his father’s coat-tails in order to make a career for himself as a director – despite the moment of nepotism on the dvd cover. Whilst the film is far from perfect, there are enough artistic flourishes here to make him quite unique and apart from his father’s zombie epics.

I was a bit concerned by the opening credit sequence. Although the imagery was excellent, I feel we’ve seen the jittery editing style about a dozen times too often, it’s become a cliché of the genre. However its followed by an introductory montage of the local countryside which is well shot and edited in a unique fashion – it’s almost the polar opposite of what we’d just seen.

Story-wise, the film starts very slowly and in a rather loose fashion. It takes a few minutes before things start to pull together (with the introduction of Qintin). The group of young activists don’t seem to be your typical group of friends, more just like-minded people joined together for a common cause. Therefore none seem too concerned when members of their group seem to be gone for long periods of time...

As I mentioned there are some nice touches which help the film stand out. The first of these is shortly after the first of the group is attacked. As the killer has his grizzly way, the scene is juxtaposed with Boone (Ellsworth) telling his girlfriend about the grizzly practices of slaughterhouses – effectively giving running commentary on the bloody action. Another nice touch is the dream-like way we say goodbye to each character – as each character meets their end, we are treated to a soft-focus montage of images of the person when full of life. A further positive is the scratchy, hoarse voices that Buddy hears as he cuts up the bodies.

Unfortunately not enough is invested in the characters to make the audience care, although we certainly feel one character’s pain as he is forced to watch the brutality unleashed on one of the other members of his group.

The quality of acting is not bad, with the trio of farm-owners being the standouts, although Kiko Ellsworth puts in a great, tortured performance as Boone, possibly the only person we feel anything for.

The violence is pretty strong and bloody – which it needs to be, given the type of story. The fx are very well handled throughout , with some grizzly sound fx to play on your imagination for the worst moments.

Overall the story feels just a little too familiar – a riff on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and similar to two other recent horrors, the British-made “Gnaw” and the French film, “Frontieres”. Of the three, Frontieres is the better film, but Staunton Hill makes a strong second.

Verdict:

Whilst there is little originality to Staunton Hill, it is a well-made horror with just enough unique visuals to make it stand out from the pack.

7 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)