Undertow (1996)

Let me first say for some reason I like this movie. It's atmosphereic and creepy. The setting is perfect and I'm a sucker for movies that take place during a storm. Now, I get it. The "mountainman" is the stereotypical unlikable hick. HOWEVER, I do find myself asking who is the real bad guy here. First of all while I find "Willie's" backstory troubling and sad her character comes off as a typical selfish unlikeable home wrecking whore. "Jack" is a self centered drifter who obviously leaves a path of emotional destruction wherever he goes. He comes off as your typical over confident, egotistical young city slicker who thinks he's God's gift to women, etc. He's also your typical "one-upper" who constantly feels the need to show off and prance around like a peacock. Now we get to Lyle. While he is without a doubt and ignorant SOB who refuses to conform to social norms and general niceties he is also a "don't mess with me and I won't mess with you" kind of guy. He's provided for "Willie" her whole life. She's never had to work a day but for normal household duties. She always has a full belly and a warm place to lay her head. All "Lyle" asked for was respect and the typical "hunter gatherer" relationship that has served mankind since the beginning of time. He is a backwards fool but who rescued who? Who offered shelter from the storm? Who provided warm meals and cigarettes to whom? Who's house was it? Who's truck was it? Who's WIFE was it? "Jack" came into "Lyle's" life just as hard and fast and with just as much destructive power as the storm. I think in the long run the storm was tied to "Jack" more than anything. It was "Hurricane Jack" that destroyed an innocent man's simple life. "Lyle" was an "a-hole" but long story short he really didn't do anything to deserve "Jack" coming in and destroying everything he built and eventually even killing him and running off with his wife. I would say that if this were an actual court case. "Jack" and "Willie" would both be found guilty of manslaughter. From the beginning "Jack" was an intruder and a tresspasser, and while I'm not familiar with North Carolina law the laws of man generally are on the side of the landowner. Again, I know we are supposed to feel for "Willie" and "Jack" and perhaps that's the way it was intended but the actors performances made me see this in a different light. "Lyle" was the victim here. Case closed.

As a premise, this backwoods version of the Dead Calm storyline had promise.However, director Eric Red's inability to render a convincing hurricane leads to a deluge of continuity and lighting errors.Ultimately, the viewer is more spellbound by the bizarre weather effects than the intended storyline. Intermittent spates of ham-fisted over-direction are similarly distracting.Charles Dance, doing an 'inbred backwoods hardass' schtick, does his best to save the movie. But ultimately, Undertow squeals like a pig ... and has more ham to boot.

A man's (Lou Diamond Phillips) car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and he finds a cabin deep in the woods. Unwittingly Phillips walks into a volatile situation with a psychotic nut-job (Charles Dance) and his bewildered and frightened young wife (Mia Sara). Soon the typical situations take place as Phillips seems to be in a struggle to survive and of course help Sara escape her mad husband. And naturally Phillips and Sara begin to develop deep romantic feelings for one another. Painful killer of a movie that feels like it was just thrown together with minimal resources and seemingly no planning. Phillips, who is one of those somewhat talented performers who always seems to find himself in terrible cinematic vehicles, looks tired and bored throughout. Unfortunately, he is not as tired and bored as the audience is sure to be. Turkey (0 stars out of 5).

Despite (or perhaps because of) high expectations Undertow started off as an interesting thriller but had trouble sustaining it's (relatively short) length and just didn't seem to have the pace or intensity required to carry it to it's end successfully.Being a fan of much of writer/director Eric Red's previous work, most notably as a writer of such fine films as The Hitcher, Near dark and Blue Steel (the last two in combination with his writing partner here, Kathryn Bigelow) I was expecting a taut, suspenseful film. However while the film didn't match up to these earlier works it definitely wasn't a total waste, and on a smaller scale was a quite entertaining, if somewhat limited, experience.Overall the acting from the three leads was quite good, with Dance's performance especially being distinctly well handled without relying on over the top histrionics, while Phillips and Sara both playing their less flashy parts solidly enough. Eric Red handles the direction well for the most part but is perhaps, if anything, a little too meandering at times in what ultimately unfolds more like a play than a film.Probably the film's biggest fault is that much like Red's direction, the film itself is just a little too understated for the most part, and then, as is often the case with films of this nature, it tends to go from believability to stretching credibility a tad too far just for the sake of theatrics at the end, the result of which ultimately just diminishes the overall impact of what has come before.Overall Undertow is a solid, if unremarkable thriller that definitely has it's moments, it's just that not all of those moments are as good as they could have been.One man's opinion. 7/10