What is supposed
to be a fun camping trip for three women quickly turns into a vicious game of
cat and mouse in Katie Aselton’s Black
Rock. The storyline had potential but Aselton fails to make it interesting
or original in any way.
Three lifelong
friends, Abby (Aselton), Lou (Lake Bell), and Sarah (Kate Bosworth) go on a
camping trip to a remote island known as Black Rock. Abby and Lou are no longer
friends because of a rift in the past so Sarah makes them come on the trip in
an effort to fix their friendship. She brings along a map of the island they
made when they were kids of the spot where they buried some of their
possessions. Shortly after arriving, they run into three former army men who
are hunting for deer (illegally, the girls presume). Lou recognizes one of the
men as the brother of an old high school friend so they all join each other for
drinks around a fire.
What begins as awkward conversation quickly turns into
drunken flirting between Abby and one of the guys. She playfully lures him into
the woods and the innocent gathering goes horribly wrong. The man tries to rape
Abby and she fights back, accidently killing him by hitting him in the head
with a rock. When the other two men see that their friend is dead they capture
the women and beat them in rage. They decide they have to avenge their fallen
comrade and cruelly let the women go so they can hunt them down and kill them.
The women are forced to put away their differences and work together in order
to get off the island alive.
While
Aselton had a good idea, her movie falls extremely short. The beginning is very
slow and full of catty dialogue that doesn’t teach us anything important about
the characters except that Abby is still angry with Lou for sleeping with her
boyfriend in high school, and Sarah is trying to be the peacemaker. The movie
begins to pick up pace when they run into the three ex army men. The situation
is very realistic in that the women let the men join them for food and drinks
around the fire but keep their guard up as most women would around strangers.
When they find out they were let go after each received a dishonorable
discharge, the women are quickly aware that these are not men they can trust.
The story itself is realistic and frightening but what Aselton creates is a
generic hunter/stalker movie with very few impressive qualities. There is
nothing professional about the two hillbillies hunting the women and one is so
over the top he is almost cartoonish in the way he preys on the women. They
don’t appear to be trained, ex army men whatsoever.
When
they should be fighting for their lives, the women stop to dig up the box they
buried when they were children and have a nostalgic moment together. They start
to try reconciling their personal issues instead of focusing on surviving,
which completely breaks the reality of the situation. The movie is much more
bloody and gory than it needs to be. The elaborate makeup used to make the
girls look bloody and disfigured throughout the movie is distracting and
unnecessary.
The
acting and dialogue during their fight for survival is very good. Bell and
Aselton do an excellent job portraying fear and strength at the same time and
their dialogue as they try to pump each other up to fight back against the men
is very realistic. They decide the only way they are going to get off the
island alive is if they stop being the hunted and become the hunter. They
quickly switch into survival mode and shut out all emotion in order to do what
is necessary. The issue here is that their good acting is masked by violence
and gore that goes a little too far.
All
in all, Aselton does a poor job executing a good idea. Parts of the film keep
you at the edge of your seat, due in large part to great music by The Kills,
but the majority of the film seems unoriginal and unrealistic.
Cast & Credits:
Kate Bosworth
Katie Aselton
Lake Bell
Submarine Entertainment presents a film directed by Katie
Aselton. Written by Mark Duplass. Running time: 83 minutes.
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