Rent Blood River (2009)

Spoilers follow ... - Blood River review by NP

Newlyweds Clark (Ian Duncan) and pregnant Summer (Tess Panzer) are stranded in the middle of the Nevada desert after their car breaks down. Imaginative camera work really sells how desolate the location is, and how far away from civilisation the two characters are.

They make their weary way back to a cluster of abandoned buildings, where a drifter cowboy, Joseph (Andrew Howard) arrives and immediately impresses Summer with his forceful personality. Although Clark is angered and intimidated by this, the two of them agree to traipse back to the car to ‘siphon off the gas’, leaving Summer to discover a room full of photographs, where the various subjects have their eyes blanked out. Among their number is a picture of Summer, Clark and Benny (Summer’s elder child). Startlingly, she turns to see Joseph standing behind her, where he explains he is a kind of angel of retribution, and that her unborn child is his now. Only minutes earlier, Joseph was with Clark at the car, some five miles away … and in the boot/trunk was the body of Benny.

Initially, Joseph’s proclamations of angelic status seem as ridiculous as his accusations of Clark’s alleged ‘sin’ – the ravings of an outcast – but slowly, it seems likely that he may be telling the truth. Quite what sin Clark is guilty of we’re not sure. The body of the child in the car was not there earlier and is likely a metaphor for Clark’s benefit. Summer’s crime, the reason for her punishment, is the sin of apathy – she knew what was going on and did nothing about it.

Child abuse, or child murder, seems likely, although never remotely specified – such things are left to the viewer. Murder is improbable, as Benny’s photograph is unblemished when Joseph hands it back to Summer. The wounds inflicted on Joseph by an enraged Clark also disappear, including the re-growing of three removed fingers, indicating that everything Joseph has said is true.

Andrew Howard in particular is extremely powerful as Joseph. If there are any prosthetics on display, they are very subtle. And yet as his enigmatic persona becomes more convincing, he appears not quite/more than human in certain scenes. The glistening eyes and lack of eyebrows add a certain inhuman menace to his fury.