By Rebecca Rinehart
Tennessee Gothic (2019) Review
Director: Jeff Wedding
Writers: Ray Russell, Jeff Wedding
Stars: William Ryan Watson, Jackie Kelly, Victor Hollingsworth
Producer: Katie Groshong
Synopsis: When a dim-witted widower and his teenage son offer a beautiful young woman refuge on their farm, their living situation escalates from hysterical comedy to maddening horror once they discover she's not who she says she is.
This new film from Gypsy Root Productions promises three things in the trailer: horror, sex (a lot!), and comedy. Starting with a stanza from John Keats’ poem “La Belle Dame Sans Merci,” Tennessee Gothic details the story of lovely succubus Sylvia (Kelly) as she exits the lives of one set of afflicted men and enters the doomed world of another group.
The film goes through many tone changes: it starts as a borderline rape revenge movie, as Sylvia thwarts two men who have her tied to a tree, beaten and bruised. Her ability to easily overpower these two burly men give the audience the immediate impression that Sylvia is not as she seems. Feigning injury on the side of the road, she is picked up by Paw (Hollingsworth) and taken back to his isolated farm where he lives a simple life with his adult son, Caleb (Watson). Confident in her healing abilities and unwilling to be caught by law enforcement, she convinces the pair to allow her to stay at their farm in exchange for chores and much-needed “woman’s work” since the matriarch of the family has been deceased for many years.
Before long, she and Caleb develop a romantic relationship that definitely delivers on the “sex (a lot!)” promise from the trailer. Of course, Paw is lonely as well and Sylvia finds herself compelled to satisfy his carnal needs to avoid being sent back to the orphanage from whence she came (despite clearly being in her 20s). The tone shifts into downright goofy at this point as the men try to navigate the complexities of their newfound shared relationship with Sylvia. To add to the chaos, the town Reverend is dispatched to the farm by his absentee wife to investigate the goings on and inevitably gets pulled into the bizarre situation by the group in order to keep Sylvia safely on the farm.
The second act revolves mostly around the slapstick humor of the complicated tryst between three men and a succubus. The goofy montages of sex and debauchery of the second act are entertaining but tend to go on for a bit too long. However, the zaniness is often punctuated by great scenes between Sylvia and Caleb that move the story along. Eventually, the hedonistic lifestyle catches up with the group and things fall apart into the horror aspect of the film. We know that Sylvia is not a 100-pound pixie as the guys believe so we are not given the true horror payoff of the film until the third act when they find out what we have known all along.
The film is shot beautifully on 16 mm film by the legendary Eric Stanze (Savage Harvest, In Memory Of) utilizing the beautiful but isolated Tennessee farm landscape. Notable also is the catchy alt-rockabilly soundtrack that will be stuck in your head long after the movie is over.
After a successful screening on October 15 in Nashville (where the group is located), the film was immediately put on sale on their website and released on VOD on Vimeo. I personally will be buying the Blu-ray for the extras since it seems like the cast and crew had a great time making this film. More dark comedy than horror, Tennessee Gothic is a fun hillbilly supernatural romp with a heapin’ helpin’ of sex and debauchery on the side.
RENT or PURCHASE Tennessee Gothic Now On VIMEO https://vimeo.com/ondemand/tennesseegothic
Trailer:
Becca is a horror podcaster, YouTuber, interviewer and writer who has an extreme passion for all things macabre.
YOUTUBE | ITMOM PODCAST | FB | INSTAGRAM
Have you listened to our podcast yet? It’s Beyond The Void Horror Podcast. You should! We do Reviews of new/old movies, Horror Themed Shots, Trivia & we even make up horror movies on the spot for our segment called GravePlots. It’s a lot of fun. Join us. Check it out! Listen on iTunes Here or on Spotify here! OR anywhere you listen to podcast.