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by Thomas M. Sipos,
managing editor [January 29, 2021]
[HollywoodInvestigator.com]
Marcy (Siobhan Williams) is a mess. She's an alcoholic with a tragic
past. Lots of misfortunes and reasons for guilt. Then one day a
Disgruntled Former Employee (tm) returns to Marcy's workplace and
shoots up the place.
More guilt for Marcy. She's head of Human Resources and didn't take
the former employee's threats seriously. She was probably too drunk to
care.
Marcy is given a leave of absence, so she heads for California.
Driving drunk, she barely avoids a collision. But she manages to
arrive at the Bright Hill Road Boarding House for little R&R, before
continuing her journey.
It's a suitably creepy place, situated in a tiny town on the flat,
barren plains of Alberta. (Bright Hill
Road was shot in Canada.) Mrs. Inman (Agam Darshi) runs the
boarding house. She's a cool, matronly, proper sort of widow woman.
Despite all the weird things Marcy reports seeing in the house, Mrs.
Inman is forever unperturbed.
Much of the film is the weird stuff that Marcy sees. Burned bodies,
screaming women, accidents. A sudden "fright" and then it's gone.
Marcy can't tell what's real, what isn't. One moment she's left the
hotel and is driving away, then she awakes back at the hotel. One
moment she's fine, then she looks in the mirror and sees blood
dripping from her head. Or she turns around and suddenly her room is
filled with booze bottles. I mean, hundreds of booze bottles.
Covering the bed, the floor, every chair, desk, and table.
This is one of those films where you're not sure if the character is
experiencing actual hauntings, or if she's going insane. Or is it all
a nightmare? About a third into the film, I wondered if Marcy was in
Purgatory or Hell. That was even before Mrs Inman told Marcy (early in
the film) that this is a place people come to do penance for the sins.
Bright Hill Road is an attractive
film. It doesn't have the cheap video look of many low-budget films.
Its production values are slick. The boarding house is moodily lit,
some of the compositions are affecting, and the cinematography is
creative. Marcy occasionally blurs in and out to convey her sense of
drunkenness. Talented make-up effects and fine acting all around.
Longtime horror fans might not find
Bright Hill Road all thatscary. It's nothing we haven't
seen many times before. One problem with this sort of film is that
there's no real story. Marcy just walks about, seeing and hearing
scary but disjointed things. A sudden shock, then everything's back to
normal. We're just waiting for the punchline. Is she in Hell? In a
coma? Will she get a second chance at life? After all the shocks and
frights, how will things turn out for her?
Part of Bright Hill Road's
creepiness derives from its small cast. The boarding house is vast but
vacant, aside from one other guest, a slimy dude named Owen (Michael
Eklund). A few other cast members put in a brief appearance during the
office shootout, but the bulk of the film is just Marcy, Mrs. Inman,
and Owen.
Although it treads familiar ground,
Bright Hill Road is a cozy, creepy film, enjoyable if you're in
the mood for this sort of subgenre.
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