[.ca] Penny Dreadful

The After Dark Horrorfest 2006 film with the most original situation:
Actually, I thought "Penny Dreadful" was the most innovative film from the After Dark Horrorfest and certainly not the worst (that would be "The Hamiltons," hands down). I went the whole route with the "8 Films 2 Die 4," catching all eight films at their first showings each day, buying my tickets in advance to get the free t-shirt, and then waiting for the monster it depicted to show up in one of the films (it never happened). In between the films while we got our free pop refills (I recommend just getting your large drink filled up halfway so you can make it all the way through the movie), we would sit around and dissect each film and make recommendations ("Audition" was the film most mentioned). At the end the festival my impromptu straw poll found that "Penny Dreadful" had as much support as any other film for the "best of show" title that would earn one of the eight a general release. We thought they would go with "Dark Ride" as the most commercially viable of the bunch, but they ended up picking "The Abandoned," which had its own uniqueness in that the heroine is a mature woman twice the age of the title character in this film. This was the third movie on the second day and I should explain that we had a running gag going regarding the connection between women and cars established in these films. The first day ended with "Dark Ride," which involved the heroine driving a mini-van through a wall at the right time and at the right place to save the day. The second day started with "The Gravedancers," in which the same thing happened (I think it was an SUV that time). That was followed by "The Abandoned," which begins and ends with a woman driving a giant farm truck. So by the time "Penny Dreadful" started we were all chuckling at the fact the characters were in such a small vehicle because it was just a standard car. The car in question is being driven by Orianna Volker (Mimi Rogers of "Ginger Snaps"), a psychologist who is trying to get Penny Dearborn (Rachel Miner of "The Guiding Light") over her phobia of cars. We will find out via flashbacks that she was in a car accident that claimed the lives of her parents, so she has good reason to be traumatized by the experience and want to avoid driving around in a car again. But Orianna is taking Penny on a road trip to help her get over her phobia. Penny has to stop at every gas station along the way so she can puke up her guts and then things get worse. When Orianna clips a pedestrian on a lonely stretch of mountain road she figures the least she can do is give the guy a ride. The fact that his face is obscured by a hood and that he has a skewer of meat with him does not set off the alarm bells for Orianna that are telling the rest of us that this was a big mistake (have you seen the commercial where the guy picks up the hitchhiker with the ax because the guy is carrying Bud Light and claims it is just a can opener?). Now you know full well that given this setup that Orianna is going to be dead and Penny is going to have to face the hitchhiker. What you do not expect is that most of the film is going to take place IN that little car (do not ask how the maniac set up this scenario, just go with it). At that point you will be thinking that there is not that much you can do given this scenario, but I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Director Richard Brandes ("Out for Blood") co-wrote the screenplay with Diane Doniol-Valcroze ("Kill by Inches"). There are not a lot of horror films that come up with such a simple scenario and then stick to it (I always think of Stephen King's short story "Survivor Type" and novel "Gerald's Game" as examples of the one note take to extreme approach). Yes, the initial requisite bad decision is compounded by a series of other fatal errors (I believe I actually said "Drive on the rims" out loud in the theater), but fortunately this 2006 horror film relies more on Penny's phobia and the specific situation to play out the story. Given Penny's phobia I bet you think you know exactly how this movie has got to end, but the ending for this movie does not go for the obvious. Again, this speaks to the determination of Brandes to go against expectations and to come up with something different. I certainly appreciated the audacity of doing a slasher film where most of the action is set in and around a car stuck in the woods. The net result is not a great horror film, and if your taste runs to the extreme gore of films like "Saw III," "Wolf Creek," "Hostel," et al., then this one is going to seem dreadfully tame. But I was pleasantly surprised and all things considered thought this was the second best of the eight films to die for from Horrorfest 2006 (having watched them all again on DVD, "The Abandoned" is clearly the best of the bunch for my money).