In his unsung 2000s noir masterpiece Shadow Hours, Isaac Eaton explored the darkest reaches of the human soul in the nocturnal landscape of Los Angeles’s underground. It wasn’t a supernatural horror story, at least not explicitly, but the more-than-superficial references to the truly infernal evoked Clive Barker and Dante in equal measure and added gravitas to an already compelling character study and thriller, with Peter Weller’s Stuart Chappell acting the perfect Mestophilies for this fallen world.
“Welcome to Redville”, Eaton’s fast-paced and wickedly entertaining new film, is a very different story with a unique pace thoroughly its own, but it’s not hard to see the thematic parallels. In the first film, we saw Balthazar Getty’s humble gas station attendant drawn into a world of drugs, sex, and violence. Eaton goes further with this morality play, with antiheroes already compromised driving into a night they may be unable to escape.
After a jewelry robbery that gets more violent than anticipated, Leo (Jake Manley) and Toni (Highdee Kuan), partners in crime and love, go on the run and find themselves stuck in the eponymous Redville, a mysterious small town, off the maps, full of eccentric characters and further temptations. They find a tantalizing diamond, a sheriff who might not be all he lets on (Chris Elliott), and his seductive daughter Lila (alluring newcomer Sabrina Haskett).
The stage is set for a simple but appealing pulp fiction. We can see familiar and welcome elements. The lovers on the run. Getting stranded in small town full of secrets. The threatening lawman. The femme fatale. The possibility of one big score. It’s easy to anticipate a simpler and more conventional story that might entertain us without much moral depth or intellectual stimulation.
Eaton goes deeper, however, into some places neither the audience nor the characters can predict. It’s not hard to see that Lila is bad news or that the diamond may be more trouble than its worth. What may surprise us is how simple questions cut deep, and Leo and Toni’s survival is tied in disturbing ways to the very town of Redville itself.
Eaton’s biggest strength is his grasp on tone, which bleeds into the very setting of this strange, unsettling little town. Right from when these erstwhile bandits first enter, something is innately uncanny and…”off”. Twin Peaks comes to mind. A David Lynch dime store novel is an appealing concept, and this a movie that pulls it off with its own sense of flair. The stakes are real, but one of the film’s most intriguing elements is the wicked sense of humor that pops up here and there. When the sheriff has to ask his deputy for another rifle because the first one shot nothing but a “BANG!” flag, we just have to roll with it.
A setting like this requires just the right type of ensemble, and Redville is cast and acted appropriately. In the lead, Jake Manly stands out as an angry young man torn between love and criminal ambition. He has a childish stubbornness to cause his own problems that cements the morality tale. The same could be said for Highdee Kuan, whose romantic vulnerability leads her down a doomed path. Sabrina Haskett is pitch perfect as the femme fatale capable of drawing you in even when it’s increasingly obvious she’s not on the level.
The real stand-out, not surprisingly, is Chris Elliott. In casting Brad Dourif and Peter Greene, so well-known and effective as baddies and creeps, as the good guys in Shadow Hours, Eaton shows an inspired tendency to cast against type. Here, Chris Elliott, one of the funniest men alive, finds the right note as the heavy in a surreal setting. That he is able to be both menacing while still conveying a glimpse of his comedic range speaks to the film’s unique tone and talents.
The audience may still have some lingering questions by the end. Isaac Eaton is not a filmmaker to spoonfeed. Just as we still have to question just who Stuart Chappell was, the very nature of Redville itself remains up to interpretation. One thing is clear though, it’s an entertaining ride to get there, even if you can’t get out.
A combo of Pulp fiction and Twilight Zone