Fantastic Fest 2010: Red, White and Blue Review

This indie horror film makes a pretty clear case to never leave the house again.

By Jordan Hoffman at 1:30 PM
September 27, 2010

http://www.ugo.com/movies/fantastic-fest-2010-red-white-and-blue-review

Red White and Blue Credit: IFC Films

What I take away from Simon Rumley's indie horror film Red, White and Blue is this: don't socialize. Don't have friends. Don't go out. The most tenuous connections to other people can leave you destroyed in the most violent, horrific ways you could possibly imagine.

Red, White and Blue is a film I would call "mostly good." It starts out really well, as a standard character-based drama. It proves that smart editing and good performances can trump a minimal budget.

We meet a kinda-hot/kinda-not girl who seems to be on a mission to have as much unprotected sex as possible. At a rooming house is a creepy dude who may or may not have done some strange stuff over in Iraq. Lastly, there's a goofy kid in a rock band taking care of his cancer-ridden mother. The paths of the three characters, and others in their spheres, collide in unexpected, violent ways.

I give Red, White and Blue some serious props for being thoughtful and slickly produced, but I broke with the film when it devolved into its intense violence. Maybe it is my distaste for brutality, but I kinda felt that it didn't "earn" the really gruesome stuff that happened in the last act (even if a lot of it was off camera.) I give this movie a B.

[Note: Red, White and Blue is available ON DEMAND through most major cable providers through the end of October.]