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Purgatory Road

5/10

Stars: Gary Cairns, Luke Albright, Trista Robinson, Sylvia Grace Crim, Geoff Falk

Director: Mark Savage

Twenty years after their father shot himself after losing all his savings (kept in the house!) in a robbery, a defrocked priest (Cairns) and his compliant brother (Albright) tour the countryside in a battered trailer providing travelling absolution to those wishing to confess.

The brothers are ostensibly saving towards the amount of money their father had stolen, but older sibling Vincent is a deranged psycho who knifes to death anyone whose confession involves stealing money. Then he and somewhat reluctant accomplice Michael chop up the bodies and dispose of them in the cellar of their nearby home. A man who only had sex with a goat is spared.

Their murderous spree is interrupted by equally psychotic serial killer Mary Francis (Robinson) who, in one of the film's many obviously-engineered contrivances, finishes off a confessional escapee who Vincent has been trying, for reasons known only to the scriptwriters, to strangle rather than stab.

Mary Francis soon drives a wedge between Vincent and Michael, who, as well as wanting to quit this lethal life, fancies a nearby waitress (Crim) whom he sees as his own escape route. Naturally(?), Vincent is determined to prevent this, leading to another creaky scriptual dodge, ensuring that this will end in tiers (sorry, lockdown blues: I mean tears).

The first half of Savage's film is one long round of repetitive killings and dismemberments, but he eventually gets round to steering his plot towards the cliched horror conclusion of a final confrontation between the three main participants. Cairns and Albright are fine in their roles, but the film is almost ruined by Robinson, who after more than 50 (mostly horror) film credits, still has not apparently mastered even the rudiments of film acting, quite apart from which, much of her huskily-voiced dialogue is unintelligible.

Most horror fans, however, will find the film satisfies their bloodthirst well enough. The movie's ideas are promising, but their execution, if you'll pardon the analogy, is somewhat tired.

David Quinlan

USA 2017. UK Distributor: Jinga Films. Colour (uncredited).
99 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 18.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 2, Violence/Horror 3, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 27 Oct 2020