Last Kind Words (2012)
17-year old Eli moves with his family to the isolated farm of reclusive Waylon, a man whose dark past threatens to overtake him. Eli’s family works to restore the desolate fields, while he becomes fascinated with the forests. While on the farm, Eli meets the mysterious Amanda when she gives him an apple. The next day she extracts a promise from him to avoid the deep woods. Reeling from a violent encounter with his father, one night he breaks this promise and finds her body hanging from a tree.
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Purely Joyful Movie!
Lack of good storyline.
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
This film deserves a much higher score than it has. It a well acted, beautifully shot film with great atmosphere and a slightly different storyline. It is not a run of the mill gorefest and if you like severed limbs with buckets of blood and a boringly predictable soundtrack then look elsewhere. The publicity picture that goes with this film is totally misleading but I can understand that as this film is quite hard to categorise, watch this film and see what you think. OK, from here onwards is just padding as it seems one needs ten lines of text to get a review published. Why is this I wonder? There is only a small cast but each actor performs flawlessly ( is that how flawlessly is spelt? ) and the location and sets are wonderful shot in the early fall I suspect as the foliage is taking on lovely autumnal hues. Jeez I am really beginning to struggle for words now, all I wanted to do was write a couple of lines in praise of this underrated film and I end up having to wear my fingers to stumps trying to get to the magical ten lines, ahh it seems we are have achieved the rquired number of words so goodbye and happy viewing.
Last Kind Words is a reflective, atmospheric film rich in character and drama. It is not a typical horror movie, and in fact horror fans attracted by the promotional art may be disappointed at the lack of gore or special effects.The story begins when young Eli's parents move to an isolated farm to begin a new life. Eli's father drinks too much and is haunted by a memory that won't let go of him. Bored and restless, Eli goes for long walks in the nearby woods in search of peace. There he meets Amanda, a pretty young girl that Eli quickly takes to. But the farm's owner warns Eli that Amanda is dangerous. What kind of danger lurks within the forest, and what secrets wait for Eli to discover them? This is a somber, sometimes deceptively quiet movie that works because of traditional movie-making elements that are well-executed from beginning to end. Direction is unobtrusive but well balanced, and the acting from the small cast (primarily Eli and his parents and Amanda, with Brad Dourif as the only "name" actor as the reclusive farmer) is for the most part quite good, though it's no surprise the benchmark performance goes to Dourif. The script makes sense, unlike some genre screenplays which throw logic to the winds and hope nobody cares, and in the end you understand why everything turns out the way it does. The Kentucky setting is evocative and the simple country setting is not only picturesque but at times eerie and disconcerting.Though not the horror movie some who approach this film may be expecting, Last Kind Words is in fact much better than most low-budget productions of whatever genre. Sensitive, touching, and yet creepy in its subtle way, Last Kind Words will entertain you while you watch it and linger in your mind's eye for some time thereafter.
Image Entertainment always gives independent filmmakers an outlet to get their projects out to the masses. Many of these movies fall into the extremely competitive genre of horror and suffer from collapsing into the realm of cliché. "Last Kind Words" is one of the rare exceptions to this unfortunate trend.17-year-old Eli (Spencer Daniels) and his family move to the Kentucky backwoods after the father (Clay Wilcox) loses his job. He decides to work on the secluded farm of a childhood friend and recluse (Brad Dourif). Upon exploring the woods near his new home, he meets a girl named Amanda (Alexia Fast) and feels an instant connection to her. His journeys also expose him to a dark secret the dead want restitution for from beyond the grave.It's always a treat when you put in a movie expecting nothing more than a one-dimensional horror yarn but you get so much more. Looking at the cover of "Last Kind Words," you'd think it was just another typical angry ghost flick. Instead, Director / Screenwriter Kevin Barker and Storywriter Amy Riherd Miller fashioned a touching feature that takes a coming-of-age tale and gives it more depth by combining it with an old- fashioned Southern Gothic ghost story. It keeps the viewer's interest and slowly leads them to the answers to their own queries without losing any potency along the way.The acting in independent or low-budget films can be questionable at times. That's not the case with "Last Kind Words." You can tell every actor in the movie was dedicated to the film and put their best foot forward. Brad Dourif completely embraces his role as the enigmatic hermit and landowner. Spencer Daniels commands every scene he's in. You can see the emotional depth he invested in the role in his eyes. Alexia Fast is passionate as the character of the mysterious and tragic Amanda.I have a hard time using the term "horror movie" to describe "Last Kind Words." There's so much more to it than the usual jump scares we're used to getting these days. While the film does provide adequate thrills and chills, they're accompanied and spread throughout a grievous tale of isolationism, selfishness, loss, and the quest for closure.
Eli (Spencer Daniels) and his father move to the farm of childhood friend Waylon (Brad Dourif). Eli is seemingly all alone, at least until he meets Amanda -- who is not all that she appears to be.The biggest complaint I have on this title is the cover art on the DVD. While the poster is beautiful, for whatever reason the cover is instead a cheap image of a woman who looks like she is being kidnapped and tortured. Yet, despite the cover, this is not a horror film or anything involving torture. It is a sort of love story.Not that horror fans will not enjoy it -- cult favorite Brad Dourif has a sizable role, and there are a few skeletons and some blood, so they might get that sinister grin at the corners of their lips. I entered into it expecting a horror film -- and while that was not what I saw, it is still a solid film.The photography is excellent, and the story is for the most part your standard boy meets girl tale. There are some twists, and some interesting family tension. There is drama, there is mystery... I did not care for the actress playing Amanda (her voice seemed too childish), but overall everyone had that "everyman" quality that I feel is important in crafting an empathetic story.I cannot get into it much more without spoilers, and I refuse to spoiler this film. Despite my rather low rating, it is not a bad film and worth checking out. I just wish they had used a different cover.