Southbound (2015)

If you are looking for a good thriller, with minimal special effects that calls upon the skills of the filmmaker and cast to make you feel the moment, this is a must see. Southbound, created by the independent group radio silence take the genres of thriller and horror to a new level, intertwining five stories that will have you turning on the lights and questioning the sanity of the cast. All five sequences take place in a nondescript desert town and call upon one's own fear to set the scene. As the story progresses, you see how each story leads into the next with connections that are tangential yet produce the notion that the setting for the stories is the source of danger rather than individual and unique experiences of each player. To this effect, the filmmakers do a superb job of capturing the essence of fear as you follow the lives of the players from story to story as the flow one into the next in an semi-seamless flow that keep the movie going. Of particular joy to this reviewer is, as one would assume (at least this viewer), are minimal special effects. The ones that do exist feel so real that you do not realize that they are there without reflection (or rewinding). The acting, while not Oscar worthy, is well done. You can feel the fear and terror in their dialogue, their actions as they venture through the tale. Shockingly, gratuitous nudity that is usually prevalent in the horror genre is missing or at least so minimal I do not recall a single scene. There are plenty of moments that will stay with you and are sure to be topics around the water cooler. The 'frights' are memorable enough to make this production worth watching. The filmmakers remind this reviewer of early thriller producer/director M. Night Shyamalan works with their own twist on storytelling. I recommend renting this feature as it s a must see with potential to be a cult classic in years to come.