Review by Ben Bussey.
Red White & Blue is the story of Erica (Amanda Fuller) and Nate (Noah Taylor), two neighbours in a crumbling apartment building, and Franki (Marc Senter), a guitarist in a struggling rock band. It takes place in Austin. Beyond that, I’m wary to mention anything of the plot. Simon Rumley’s film is a difficult one to discuss without giving anything away, which might explain why in the run-up to its British release some reviewers seem to have thought to hell with it and given away the lot (not naming names, but shame on you). One thing I will categorically state is that if you’re looking for a horror movie to facilitate a fun night in with a curry and some beers, Red White & Blue is most definitely not the film you’re after. If, however, you want to see independent filmmaking of the highest order, filmmaking which challenges the viewer at every turn and pushes the boundaries of what we percieve to be horror, then you need look no further.
It may be set in Austin and peopled with working class Americans (yes, I’m aware Noah Taylor isn’t actually from round those parts), but at heart Red White & Blue is not too far removed from the upper class English drama of Rumley’s previous film The Living and the Dead. Both films defy easy description; both for the most part emphasise character over narrative. Perhaps most significantly when considering these films as entries in a modern horror cycle, these are films with horrific content but without clearly defined antagonists. Yes, heinous acts are committed by people in a more than questionable state of mind, but each person has their reasons for doing such things. We certainly need not condone these actions, but nor do we condemn the person responsible as evil. This is a pretty rare approach, even in the most uncompromising films of today; even A Serbian Film, notable for featuring its protagonist Milos engaging in some of the most hideous behaviour imaginable, ultimately relieved Milos of much of the blame and heaped it all on the shoulders of the unequivocal villian Vukmir. In Red White & Blue, however, the actions of Erica, Nate and Frankie are entirely their own doing, right or wrong, and each in their own way remains to a certain extent sympathetic in spite of the awful things they have done.
Far from the passive experience that is so often provided by much low-budget horror, Red White & Blue is a film which requires a lot of work on the part of the viewer. Not only does it leave you to make your own moral assessments of the characters and their actions, but it also leaves many blank spaces in the narrative, leaving a great many questions left unanswered and a great deal left unsaid. There are large stretches in which dialogue is sparse at best; indeed, unless I’m mistaken not a word is uttered in the first five minutes. Okay, I give up, there’s no way I can expand on this without getting into the plot just a little: as we are introduced to Fuller’s Erica and Taylor’s Nate and their burgeoning relationship (whatever kind of relationship it is), neither character is what you’d call a great people person, and the sparsity of the dialogue reflects this. By contrast, once we get properly acquainted with Senter’s Franki, he’s very much the motormouth, as befits his wannabe rock star status. But in each case, that which is said might not necessarily reflect that which actually is. They all have their secrets and have all made their own deceptions, which come to a head in the confrontational final act. It’s drama worthy of Chekov or Ibsen, if either of them wrote a play set in Austin and ended it with several scenes of horrendous violence. (I should hardly think that counts as a spoiler.)
The presence of Marc Senter may draw comparisons between this film and The Lost, Chris Sivertson’s screen adaptation of Jack Ketchum’s novel. The films have more in common than a great Senter performance. To a large extent, Rumley (along with the likes of Sivertson and Lucky McKee) is developing on screen that same brand of naturalistic, character-based, blue collar horror that Ketchum pioneered in fiction. Where so many slasher and torture films deliver on nothing more than bloodshed for its own sake, Red White & Blue is the kind of film in which blood does not spill until the tensions between the characters have reached breaking point. As such, it’s obviously not a barrel of laughs, and not necessarily a film you’ll be too eager to revisit. But it’s a film that demands to be seen, if only once, as a firm reminder of the intelligence, emotion and pure drama that horror cinema is capable of at its very best, in the hands of an exceptional writer/director and cast.
Red White & Blue is in select UK cinemas now, and comes to DVD on 10th October from Trinity Entertainment. For another take on the film, check out Britt’s review.