Downrange (2017)

Director: Ryûhei Kitamura
Writer(s): Kitamura, and Joey O'Bryan
Starring: Kelly Connaire, Stephanie Pearson, Rod Hernandez, and Anthony Kirlew

Downrange is a movie for people who aren't interested in wasting time on things like “characterization” or “context”: within the film's first five minutes, the story is completely set up for us. And a simple story it is: Six carpoolers, most of whom don't know each other, and who are each headed to their own unspecified locations, blow a tire in the middle of nowhere (with—surprise!--no cell phone signal) and are then picked off one by one by a former military sharpshooter hiding somewhere in the surrounding trees.

With this simple setup, director Ryûhei Kitamura subverts audience expectations, delivering a devilish film that's a grueling exercise in bloodshed and tension, even for more “advanced” horror fans. I imagine many of the poor reviews of this are from people who expected a more “lighthearted” killing spree, but Kitamura's focus on the heartless, cold-blooded killer who, we can only assume, lies in wait for “prey”, allows him a virtually blank canvas to destroy long-held taboos: children are murdered, a dying character gasps for breath (which I've since learned is a Kitamura trademark), people helplessly look on as loved ones die, and every murder is carried out in excruciating, almost-too-graphic detail, from a nameless murderer with no feeling or remorse or sense of mercy, and whose backstory and motives are never revealed. It's almost the antithesis of what horror movies have become, but what they should always have been: actually horrifying.

Unfortunately, Kitamura's commitment to the visceral aspects don't translate to the writing, which presents the same standard collection of cardboard cutouts for its characters: there's the token black man, the young lovers, the good-looking single guy, the tough knowledgeable woman, and the timid, shy female. Many of these characters are so annoying that you're begging for the killer to off them as quickly as possible. (And, of course, the two worst offenders are the ones that make it the farthest, adding a dose of anger to the proceedings on the part of the viewer.) The acting is also hit-or-miss, though I would venture to say that, at least for a horror movie, the cast is above-average overall.

While those issues certainly knock the film down several pegs, preventing it from being the classic it could have been with a more experienced cast, there's no denying that this is a brutal film that takes horror back to its roots. It's primitive, ugly, and violent, and overall accomplishes the basic things that it sets out to do.

RATING: 7/10

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