Director: Andre Alfa
Year: 2021
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: Rightful
Genre: Supernatural Slasher
Plot:
After learning that she’s inherited some land, a woman and her friends travel to a small southern town to look into everything and soon find that she’s involved in a shady incident from the past involving a pair of wrongly convicted black men who have no risen from the grave seeking revenge for these actions.
Review:
This one really could’ve been better but is still enjoyable enough. This one really works when focusing on the revenge-based rampage that’s told in the finale. That features the exploits of the curse coming true as the killers rise from their graves and set out to seek revenge on the ones whose ancestors wronged them enables some enjoyable enough slashing scenes. Getting the group into the courthouse at the end allows for some entertaining scenes of the group being chased through the building and being killed off in rather graphic and brutal ways, this isn’t revolutionary or truly impressive but still features a reasonably exciting part of the film featuring creepy-looking killers offering the bloodshed. These aspects are what make this one rather tolerable for the most part.
There are a few problems with this one. One of the main problems here is the film’s sluggish pace that, even at a considerably shorter run-time, makes this feel a lot longer than it really is. The first half to this one really struggles to get going, mired in a string of racist outbursts from the locals, a series of intimidation tactics disguised as goading her to sell her share of the land, and a really shoehorned and unnatural romance angle that really struggles to make it feel like a genre effort. These scenes would’ve been fine had they done something special to build on the revenge that’s taking place, but these scenes end up holding back that revenge part until so late in the film that it comes off dull and overlong at times based on the setup.
As well, there’s also the rather curious notion of the film being comically over-the-top with its characterizations in order to prove points about social issues. The overt racism on display towards the black characters, with their language and immediate physical violence merely at their existence, is so far removed from realistic behavior that there’s no connection to any kind of commentary it’s trying to prove. Likewise, a further attempt at criticizing sexual intimidation and conspiracies in the workplace comes off so utterly lazily and then forgotten about highlights the futility of including it as it’s such a backhanded addition that it doesn’t need to be there. It goes hand-in-hand with the other drawbacks here to really lower this one from what it could’ve been.
Overview: *.5/5
Filled with a lot to like in regards to being a fun genre film but really troubling when it’s not concerned with those elements, that this one has so little of the former and much more of the latter means this one really underwhelms even though it should’ve been better. Give this a look if you’re a fan of these kinds of indie efforts or if the flaws aren’t that bothersome but most others will want to heed extreme caution with this one if not outright avoid.
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