Magnet Releasing
Years before I became a teacher, my dream job was to become a park ranger. The job had always fascinated me, and I wanted to be in nature all day long. This was the main reason I checked out Body at Brighton Rock, the new horror film from Magnet Releasing. The film centers around Wendy, a part-time employee at a mountainous state park. She is often late for work and her co-workers don’t think she is capable to take on a rough trail assignment. She wants to prove them wrong but ends up taking a wrong turn and getting lost. In the back country of Brighton Rock, she discovers a dead body and must stay with the body until help can arrive the next morning.
Body at Brighton Rock is a short film at only 1 hour and 27 minutes long. The film spends most of the first act showing us how Wendy is irresponsible and trying to make us believe she isn’t right for the job. She misses her morning meeting about assignments for the day, she ignores her surroundings, and listens to music instead of focusing on her job. When she discovers a dead body, she doesn’t know how to react and ends up interfering with the crime scene. Director Roxanne Benjamin captures how a lot of us would react in this situation. Wendy doesn’t have much experience in these kinds of situations and the interesting part of watching Wendy trying to survive the night is thinking about how you would handle this situation that Wendy is in. It is easy to relate to Wendy and the writers did a good job of making the character realistic.
Body at Brighton Rock isn’t a horror movie with demons and monsters, it is a movie that makes nature the true enemy. Being out in the mountains alone can mess with one’s mind and Benjamin does a fine job balancing reality as well as what Wendy thinks is happening with the body. Being at the mountains during the day is a lot of fun, but when it becomes nighttime, noises start playing tricks on you. At times the moments of nature playing tricks on Wendy is earned, but it becomes repetitive at times. I was expecting something to happen towards the end of the film, but when I learned what the film was truly trying to capture, I understood the importance of the repetitive scenes.
Benjamin films her movie beautifully utilizing the vast mountainous landscape to her advantage. Wendy stays close to the dead boy over-night, but Benjamin turns the landscape from beautiful to haunting as the sun goes down. Watching the camera movement throughout the film reminded me why I love visiting National parks.
Body at Brighton Rock is a decent horror film with beautiful scenery and a realistic story. Any person with limited experience in the mountains would act the way Wendy did. As the sun went down, nature played tricks on her and it was intense to see what was real or not at the end of movie. Every night as I lay in bed, I think certain things in my room are not what they are. For example, I often think the clothes in my closet is someone standing there. Every night it creeps me out and that is exactly what Wendy was going through. I still hope that one day I can become a park ranger, but I’ll make sure not to get lost like Wendy did.
Body at Brighton Rock has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes and is rated R for language and some bloody images.
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