FINDING COMFORT IN A DEADLY PLACE

Director J.R. Giurissevich is full of surprises in mysterious thriller

Iain Belcher, Cassandra Ebner and Shawn Blair McKinney in A Deadly Place

By reading the synopsis of this film A Deadly Place you would think this is another one of those thrillers where a woman returns home and all hell breaks loose from the minute the film starts.  Maybe the film Alone featuring Jules Wilcox would remind you that A Deadly Place is going to be the same type of film.  Well, that is certainly not the case here with Director J.R. Giurissevich‘s latest thriller as she really gives the audience a run for their money by keeping them on the edge of their seat and even the smartest and geekiest of cinephiles guessing as to what is going to happen next.

Hailey Adams, played by Cassandra Ebner, returns home after her father Samuel, played by Douglas Chapman, has passed away.  As she is about to collect her thoughts and grieve, an unexpected visitor comes knocking on the door.  It is an old family friend Ben Tinson, who is played by Iain Belcher, who has noticed that Hailey has returned after several years away.  Ben invites Hailey back to his house where his father Gregory, played by Shawn Blair McKinney, is going to have dinner to celebrate his late daughter’s birthday Tressa, who is played by Rachel Renaud.  Hailey agrees despite the awkwardness and antisocial characteristics of Ben but having known him for a long period of time is her saving grace.

When Hailey is invited to the house, Gregory is enthralled to see her and excited to hear about the many stories that she has in regards to her journey away from home.  This is where the discomfort and uneasy level of the audience sets in as all three of them seem to be uncomfortable with the situation but it is the right thing to do.  With Ben’s awkwardness, Gregory’s passive-aggressiveness and Hailey’s unemotional presence and nonchalant attitude towards her father’s death, the slow burn of this film goes much deeper when they finally get to the dinner table.  It is as if all three desire something from the other but don’t know how to quite get there.  It is like the three of them are playing Texas Hold’em Poker as they are all bluffing to see whether who is going to go in first to uncover some sort of truth.  With a much break in the uneasy purgatory of instability, Hailey asks to go to the washroom but decides to go inside the wrong door as she sees a vigil for Tressa in Gregory’s room.  He then walks in unexpectedly and is surprised that Hailey is in there and that she has invaded his privacy.  This is the turning point amongst several points in the film that really makes you think twice as to what the hell is really happening.

The journey that director J.R. Giurissevich puts you on is quite eventful and it really messes with your head because you try to find some comfort in all the discomfort that you are feeling.  All the P.T. Anderson like shots and close-ups that make you absorb what each of the characters is feeling or seeking really sets up the slow burn process but builds up that climax to the story.  You have to hand it to Iain Belcher who really sets the tone to the film with his awkwardness which becomes so annoying yet is relative to the mood of the film.

A Deadly Place is that type of film where you have one of those “what the fuck” type of moments.  It is similar to the movie The Departed where everyone gets shot and you go “what the fuck?”  Not that everyone gets shot in this film A Deadly Place but it is that unexpected moment that creeps up on you which is just thrilling.  It is almost as if this film which is set in a linear non-linear format which brings all these moments that no one saw coming.  If the movie A Deadly Place was a song then it would be Phil Collin‘s “In The Air Tonight” because the beat does come unexpectedly at more than halfway to the song.  The audience in this film knows it’s coming, but they just don’t when and where.