COLLECTOR'S CRYPT - YELLOWBRICKROAD (LIGHTYEAR BLU RAY)
Ambiguity in horror is a double-edged sword. Sometimes it can serve as a canvas for our imagination to fill in the blanks, other times it feels like an excuse for lazy writing. Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum of enjoyment for ambiguity in horror, it is no doubt a trope that permeates across genres with the same hit/miss effect. Modern horror films (2000- Present) seem to champion ambiguity more than in previous decades, and in some cases, it has become the aesthetic for almost an entire studio (looking at you A24). When used well, ambiguity can be a landscape for interpretation and discourse. David Lynch has notoriously stated that he doesn’t like to talk about his interpretation of his films and prefers that audiences engage with them on their own terms without persuasion. This argument holds merit for Lynch since his films seldom relay a linear narrative and are rife with metaphors beckoning to be discussed, even if the conclusion is still utter confusion. Used incorrectly, ambiguity feels like the emergency exit for a film that doesn’t know how to land an ending. Take 2019’s THE LODGE. A darling of the festival circuit and heralded as “the scariest movie ever” for that year, THE LODGE offers up an ending that is not as ambiguous as it thinks and leaves the film feeling incomplete. As if the filmmakers were not sure how to end it so they just left it unresolved even though we are brought to the literal climax of the film as the credits roll. For viewers like me, this feels like a bait and switch to build up emotional capital only to degrade into contempt for the lack of vision in ending the movie in such an unfulfilling way. Whether you agree with assessments or not, ambiguity in horror is not new and isn’t going anywhere. In 2010’s YELLOWBRICKROAD, recently put out on blu ray from LIGHTYEAR FILMS, ambiguity is core to the story and a title that we recently added to the crypt. Is ambiguity the linchpin of terror for YELLOWBRICKROAD, or is it a frustrating stumble on a path hardly traveled?
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
1940: the entire population of Friar, New Hampshire walked up a winding mountain trail, leaving everything behind.
2008: the first official expedition into the wilderness attempts to solve the mystery of the lost citizens of Friar.
HOW IS IT?
YELLOWBRICKROAD reminded me a lot of another film we recently reviewed, HOMEBOUND. While the latter is tonally a bit different, both films prefer to defer the interpretation of the story and happenings within to the viewer in some of the most frustrating ways possible. Both use ambiguity as a means to avoid driving the story home and leave the viewer with a sense of “what was the point of all of this”? Ultimately, it's the inability to tell a story that matters to the audience that impedes YELLOWBRICKROAD from arriving at its fullest potential.
The story and mythos of YELLOWBRICKROAD are actually quite intriguing. A mixture of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT meets WRONG TURN minus the deformed murderous hillbillies and the effective paranoia in Blair Witch. We are introduced to our group of researchers at the very start and almost immediately they are all forgettable. As this group continues to follow this infamous trail, they become even more anonymous by being played out like copy/paste characters from any generic horror film. In films where dread and paranoia are paramount, caring about and remembering your characters is essential to the effective delivery of the desired sentiment. It takes about 45 minutes for anything of note to begin happening to the group, and the classic “we took some drugs oh no” scene is in there for good measure as well. What’s fascinating about YELLOWBRICKROAD is that shortly after the midpoint we are treated to a truly effective and atmospheric scene involving a creepy-looking scarecrow only to never revisit any of those things ever again in the film. It’s odd to have such a great sequence and then not follow it up with much more than people getting themselves more and more lost in the woods they are exploring. And this doesn’t even begin to touch on one of the most annoying aesthetics of YELLOWBRICKROAD; the use of sound. There are moments in the film where the sound entirely cuts out and we are supposed to be hearing dixie-style music that fades in and out alluding to the fact that the characters are hearing this as well. This goes on for far longer than it should and becomes a part of the story overall that is never explained, rationalized, or even brought back around by the end. The way this is executed made me almost want to turn off the movie. And even though I knew what the filmmakers were trying to accomplish, I feel like the way this was executed did more harm than good to the viewing experience.
YELLOWBRICKROAD is technically competent and shot well making good use of the sparse woods environment. That’s why it is such a shame that the rest of the film is so lackluster as the mood is right and the filmmaking is better than average, and ultimately this is a script issue more than anything else. The entire prelude about the missing town is really interesting, but it has almost no relevance outside of being the reason why this group of people go down this trail and is not revisited at any other point in the movie. For all intents and purposes, it could have been left out and the movie would remain almost the same. That’s kind of what is most frustrating about YELLOWBRICKROAD, it’s brimming with good ideas and the right atmosphere, but isn’t sure how to use them effectively. The ending only adds to this confusion while it attempts to salvage itself by ramping up the action. This is not to say YELLOWBRICKROAD is a bad film, it’s just a particularly interesting or entertaining one.
HOW DOES IT LOOK?
YELLOWBRICKROAD is a 12-year old film at this point, and still looks quite good all things considered. LIGHTYEAR has released YELLOWBRICKROAD on a blu ray disc maintaining the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The film and settings are noticeably drab by design, and the color palette is murky, grey, and earthy to fit the location of a wooded area in the fall. Visually speaking the film and disc look great, and you can see screenshots from the film throughout the review and below:
HOW DOES IT SOUND?
YELLOWBRICKROAD has two different audio options; a 5.1 surround mix and a 2.0 stereo mix. I opted for the former and generally speaking the sound is just fine. There aren’t a lot of loud noises throughout and few action scenes, so the surround sound doesn’t really get utilized as much as it could. One glaring issue here was the dialogue levels. For some reason, they were unreasonably low and I had to turn my volume up on the surround sound two times higher than normal to even try to understand what the characters were saying. This brings me to another point about subtitles, where are they? Not only would that help save the sub-par dialogue mixing, but it also makes the film more accessible. If SOV labels like VISUAL VENGEANCE can give us subtitles for films that cost less than $10,000, we should expect them on bigger releases as well. Finally, as mentioned in the review above, the use of sound here is at first novel until it becomes annoying. While this isn’t an audio issue per se, it’s worth noting so one doesn’t presume that their disc is malfunctioning because of the odd choices with respect to sound usage.
ANYTHING SPECIAL?
YELLOWBRICKROAD from LIGHTYEAR comes out with a slew of interviews to fill out the special features. There is an audio commentary with the directors, however, I didn’t care to listen to it since I didn’t really enjoy the film all that much. I did however watch a couple of the newly created “documentaries” that are included.
I used “documentaries” loosely here as they are mostly just behind-the-scenes vignettes. The first is Walking the YellowBrickRoad which is essentially just some home videos captured during the production and cut together with the occasional narration from the person recording. It’s not that enlightening with respect to the creation of the film and really is just a look at cast & crew goofing off behind the scenes. ROBERT EGGERS fans will be in for a short treat to see a younger him on the set of the film, which is the highlight of this feature overall. The other vignette, Practical Blood Fx on an Indie Budget is very similar to the previous one even though their titles set different expectations. This is 10 minutes of videos with the effects folks making blood and playing with props. Not a lot of substance to these, and that’s not a massive complaint since the film doesn’t have a massive following which may warrant more in-depth examinations of the film.
A full list of special features included in this release is listed below:
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Practical Blood FX on an Indie Budget
Walking the YellowBrickRoad
Focus on Andy Mitton
Focus on Jesse Holland
Focus on Clark and Cassidy
Focus on Eric Hungerford
Original Director's Commentary
LAST RITES
YELLOWBRICKROAD is a well-made mess of a film that offers up great atmosphere with interesting ideas that ultimately do not add up to much by the end. Missed opportunities and adversarial ambiguity make this a hard one to recommend, but worth a watch for those who enjoy moodier looking films about abandoned trails.
THE GORY DETAILS
YELLOWBRICKROAD arrives on blu ray/dvd/digital on AUGUST 9, 2022 from LIGHTYEAR FILMS. You can pre-order a physical copy today via AMAZON.
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