The film contains five stories set on desolate stretches of a desert highway. Two men on the run from their past, a band on its way to a gig, a man struggling to get home, a brother in search of his long-lost sister and a family on vacation are forced to confront their worst fears and darkest secrets in these interwoven tales.
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.
Modern Day Southern Gothic Highway-Based is a very specific theme for a Horror Anthology to tackle, and while none of the segments are bad, none of them stand out as particularly good either.
_Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._
**The neverending tale(s)!**
Five tales, written and directed by four directors. It was a horror anthology that takes place in just one day and night. Firstly, this film was not bad as it looks. Each tale and its interlocking with one another was very nicely done. The layers are not arranged in a column or a row or a circle. It was just like what you see on the poster, a star. Especially one character from each tale, how they become a victim in another was the highlight. The genre mixing was so good, I mean it was not out and out a horror. Mystery, thriller, crime, all was put together and presented smartly on the screen, particularly the loop was very fascinating.
I have seen some similar kind, but this one was slightly different from those and a better one in some way. Not all the tales were awesome, though there's nothing wrong with them. For every 15 minutes, it keeps developing without giving rest to us and events in the film. So it was a non-stop entertainment, particularly if you like horror, thriller. If you pay close attention, you could find more hidden meanings or messages. So this film can be watched once, but not everyone going to enjoy it. Especially if you are okay with B movie, then there's nothing stops you.
_6/10_