Red Canyon

source: Red Canyon

Originally I turned to this movie cuz my boy Justin Hartley was in it, and I loved him as green arrow on smallville. That's about the only thing I liked about this film. It was all over the place. The flashbacks were skewed, the dialogue sounded forced, and the actors seemed like this was their first time acting. The ending is what really made me give this 1 star. There's no conclusion. The final girl gets kidnapped by her brother, which I couldn't tell if they were half siblings or full (earlier it was revealed the brothers father wasn't who we thought he was), and he rapes her. But in the flashback they tried to make him rape her and he couldn't because it was his sister. So now suddenly he can? And that's how it ends? Literally fades to black as he puts the d in her. All thumbs down

Now there is another Red Canyon (a western), that I haven't seen yet. But by the looks of it, it is way better than this movie right here. So many flaws, so many bad things ... and even a Norman Reedus can't save it. While I haven't seen any of the Walking Dead yet (on my list, but so many other things to watch), this was way before he got famous for that. So while you might have ended up here because of him, you probably will be very much dissapointed if that is the case. Don't waste your time, this is as weak as the rating make it out to be

Okay, so I decided to watch this movie because it has my favorite actor Justin Hartley from This Is Us, who plays Kevin Pearson in that show (and quite well, I might add). I knew this was going to be bad based on what I'd read but I thought maybe it would at least be fun to watch. It was not. It was just plain bad. Not "so bad it was good." Just awful. There was literally nothing good about it. Don't watch it. Don't even think about it. Go do something else instead. Pretty much anything else would be a better use of your time.

I'll try to be short and sweet. The directors and writers had an opportunity to tell an interesting, albiet messed up, story. They flopped. Camera work is shoddy. I could hardly understand half the dialogue. If I hadn't already known most of the story, I really don't think any of it would have made sense. Honestly, I watched it for Mr. Reedus. Even though his character is important to the story, he's really not in it enough to constitute watching it just for the eye candy.

Red Canyon would never had the opportunity to be laying there on horror conventions these days wasn't it that Norman Reedus was in it with his Walking Dead fame. On the other hand, the sleeve looked great and did remind you of a Rob Zombie flick. But we all know that sleeves and promotion on the sleeve can trick the potential buyer. I was fooled and only bought it for Reedus. It had so many possibilities to make it a great movie but the editing and the flash backs make this almost unwatchable. The throwback to explain what happened years ago are so badly done. The use frustrating shaky cams and in post production they added some blurry effect. By doing so the so-called gory parts are teared down to stupid scene's that do show a lot but doesn't work at all. The flick itself had an okay story and I could dig the story but sadly the editor destroyed this flick. Gore 0,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 0/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Red Canyon starts as brother & sister Devon (Tim Draxl) & Regina (Christine Lakin) along with several of their friends drive along the long isolated desert highways of Utah en-route to their hometown of Red Canyon, in an attack which still haunts Regina she was raped in a old mine shaft a few years earlier & Devon feels that facing up to the attack will help her get over it. Regina heads to the mine to confront her fears but is attacked again & barely manages to get away, the cops are called the drug making rapist is arrested but soon finds himself free when the Sheriff is murdered by his mates who release him. The rapist & killers & drug dealers all head over to where Devon, Regina & their friends are & terrorise them as they kill them one-by-one... Co-written, co-produced & directed by Giovanni Rodriquez this boring & silly horror thriller is pretty poor, apart from some nice views Red Canyon the film & the town has little going for it. The script is a cross between all those sandy desert set horror films like The Hills Have Eyes (2006) with it's location & teen slasher feel & Straw Dogs (1971) with it's theme of rape & a spirited fightback by the potential victims, only it's nowhere near as good as either of those films. The script tries to be too clever for it's own good, there are constant confused flashbacks to earlier events that are different each time & are just randomly edited into the main film & the final ten minutes is supposed to feature several twist's but they are all pretty predictable, aren't properly explained & don't make a whole lot of sense when you think about them. Running just over 90 minutes Red Canyon is pretty dull & boring, every aspect of Red Canyon is taken from another better film & are just thrown together with little purpose. There is one piece of really bad scripting that is amongst the worst I have ever seen, while hiding in a secret tunnel Regina decides to try & grab her necklace which she dropped & sicks her hand out of the cover to try & find it but the killer then see's her & everyone's cover is blown for no great reason. I mean why give yourself away when you have a good hiding place? All for a stupid necklace? The scenery is quite nice I suppose, it's fairly well made if forgettable & all too familiar. There's not much gore & the rape isn't graphic either. There's lots of annoying scares like Dog's suddenly coming out of nowhere & barking, noises outside a window that turn out to be Cow's & lots of teens walking around in the dark. With a supposed budget of about $1,500,000 this was filmed in Utah, it has reasonable production values but is forgettable. The acting is alright, no-ones going to win any awards though. Red Canyon is a poor patchwork horror film that steals it's ideas from better films & doesn't even make the most of them, I can't say i enjoyed the confusing mix of flashbacks, daft twist's & dumb teenagers. I didn't like it.

Films with Red in the title tend to be good for some reason. No i am not doing a list, though i will mention top Australian thriller Red Hill. This did not get a UK theatre release. I only know of it as it was given faint praise by Kim Newman in an issue of Empire mag on it's belated DVD release.It turns out to be a handsomely filmed Drama with horror overtones as two youngsters and their friends return to the family home in the badlands of Utah, where a brutal rape causes them to return to try to put it behind them. Not the best idea to say the least, but this manages to carry it off with a good script and decent acting.Think the opposite side of the plot in the excellent Wolf Creek and your nearly there. Well worth a look and there's a dog you would not take down the pub!

This movie was totally awesome! Loved it all! Norman Reedus was terrifying and in control. There were so many twists and things you wouldn't expect. I watch this movie at least twice a day since I got it. It's sick but brilliant! If you have a hard time watching movies that contain certain graphic moments then this is not the movie for you. If you can handle it and like to see some good killing then watch this. It will blow your mind! I have to admit there are some bad acting in here but it's not that bad. There could have been a little more gore for a rated R horror movie but it's still good. Reminds me of House of 1000 Corpses. Norman Reedus is my favorite in this. He's the best of the best and can do anything. A shame what happens. But all in all it's a pretty damn good flick!

Warning, I did not see this film. In deciding to watch, I read the glowing reviews. Not just glowing, but reviews meant for real films with real actors, a real script and a real Director. I noted the reviews were the only ones written by a particular author. Not so unusual, but odds are a few reviewers would've written more than one review. Then there was the fact they were all 10 star reviews. "Gee," I thought, "COULD THESE POSSIBLY BE FAKE REVIEWS???" Filmmakers, you're terribly misguided. And quite idiotic. Will you do anything to get people to watch this piece of crap? Why not write a good or at least better script instead. Your attempt at manipulation failed as all unctuous plots do when they test people's intelligence. And from a fellow filmmaker - screw you. You're everything that's wrong with the industry.