There have been plenty of films that come from the dark times we all experienced when the world was locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many have shown their low budget and origins, but Paul Schuyler’s film has a layer of polish and conviction that puts it above the others.

It’s a sadly all-too-familiar situation: a family are isolating together in their summer house, away from the city as they and the rest of the country are forced to keep themselves safe from a threat that seems to come through the Internet. Rather than an airborne virus, it’s the electronics we’ve become reliant on that have become our enemy. With regular parcel drops of food and films (with streaming being unavailable, physical media is king again), and an implant in the neck so that they don’t stray too far from their designated zone, the family seem to be coping until it turns out the children have been accessing chat rooms with others across the country. The kids say there’s a conspiracy circulating that it’s all a hoax, but could that in itself be a sign they are infected?

Using his own family, Schuyler capitalises on the in-built dynamic. There may well be many wry observations on the situation of the past few years, but Schuyler takes the story into different layers of paranoia and menace. As we move away from familiarity, the viewer is constantly knocked off guard as the mental state of the characters becomes more erratic. Their choice of films often parallels their situation, particularly since one of them is John Carpenter’s The Thing. As suspicion of ‘infection’ grows, so does the coherence of what’s going on.

You’d be hard pushed to find a family acting together as good as we have here. When most people made bread, the Schuyler family made a rather good movie. Great use of a bad time, if you ask us.

Red River Road is available on digital in the US.