CERT: 18 | PLATFORM: VOD | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Redwood Massacre: Annihilation, the latest movie from independent horror writer / director David Ryan Keith, is the follow-up to 2014’s The Redwood Massacre. Set ten years after the first film, the plot focuses on manipulative psychopath Max (Grimm‘s Damien Puckler) and his attempts to locate his idol, the original Redwood killer. Along the way, he recruits the family of one of his former victims who are looking for answers as to the whereabouts of their missing relative.
Genre fans will be happy to see scream queen Danielle Harris as lead role Laura Dempsey, but long-time fans of the former Jamie Lloyd will no doubt be disappointed once again to find that a quality non-Halloween role has still not materialised. Perhaps it’s time that she started looking for a new agent… Danielle is as professional and charismatic as ever but, unfortunately, one sprightly performance is nowhere near enough to redeem this car crash of a movie.
David Ryan Keith seems to have no idea how to script dramatic, coherent or even human-sounding dialogue, and some of the character choices and plot points often seem either baffling or like borderline continuity errors. Damien Puckler is mostly believable as the unhinged psycho and Benjamin Selway (seen here as the masked killer) does an admirable job of aping Kane Hodder, but the movie is so bogged down with incredibly amateurish performances that their efforts feel futile. It would be unfair to say this film is completely without merits, as there are some well-executed moments from a technical filmmaking perspective and the numerous gore effects are all done practically. Does that stop this movie from being garbage? No, it bloody does not.