Dig Two Graves (2014)

October 23, 2018 6:33 PM

After 13-year-old Jacqueline "Jake" Mather loses her brother in a mysterious drowning accident, she is soon visited by three moonshiners who offer to bring him back to life, but at a grim cost.

With Ted Levine (aka Jame Gumb from The Silence of the Lambs as Jake's grandpa/the sheriff. 81% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

posted by DirtyOldTown (3 comments total)

Terrific atmosphere, a very organic, lived-in feel, and absolutely fantastic lead performances from Samantha Isler (Jake) and Ted Levine and a real breakout turn from Troy Ruptash, who I will henceforth be calling "American Peter Stormare." The period settings were well-appointed and evocative, the dialogue was way better than average, and the central relationship between Jake and her grandpa was extremely well-done. This really felt like a well-put together old short story, and I applaud the execution of it, up and down.

Ten years ago, I'd have given this movie a solid B+ and an enthusiastic rave for fellow horror nerds. But it's 2018 now, and I have to chide the film for having spooky bad "gypsy folk" as the villains. Yes, they were humanized by not having started the feud with Porter and Mather, but there was still some pretty heavy curse-throwing, naked-ladies-dancing-with-snakes, ancient evil Othering going on and the fact that they managed to wed it with standard backwoods hillbilly Othering didn't help much.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:40 PM on October 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

Fun fact I just learned: Troy Ruptash, who plays the main heavy, has a long list of small scale tv roles, including playing the "real" Don Draper on Mad Men.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:47 AM on October 24, 2018

Loved this! I happened to watch it just a couple weeks after camping at Ferne Clyffe State Park in southern Illinois. The movie was filmed in the Johnson County area and at least one scene is filmed inside Ferne Clyffe... It was so trippy to see them frolicking around in a particular spot I'd spent several hours photographing and botanizing very recently.
posted by Ornate Rocksnail at 4:43 PM on October 25, 2018