Product: Day of Vengeance (2008)
Rating: 5.0
Once Upon a Time in Covelo
Day of Vengeance is a nasty little film that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not. A robbery gone bad, and betrayals born of mishap and greed, are the catalysts that set the clock ticking on this pastoral passion play.The passage of time in an idyllic agrarian valley, where harvest festivals and bosom-heavy country girls attract the usual run of B-movie troglodytes and biblical Midway struggles, is as much a character in this tone poem as are the various and tawdry characters who come and go. A general store, a motel, a bar, a storage facility, the deceptive calm of the noon sun on sleepy shade trees, lend a sense of normalcy that beckons human depravity to do its best to dig up the dirt and sow havoc.There's a morally ambiguous sheriff in town, and a couple of deputies whose genes lie somewhere on the genetic map between Tonto and Barney Fife, and a Prodigal Son with no purpose in life other than the pursuit of a storied stash of filthy lucre and a possible hook-up with a milk-fed buxom barkeep who can shoot the balls off a steer without her halter betraying a sweat.Day of Vengeance is Greek myth, a tour of the underworld in the light of day. A river runs through it, Charon collects secrets and storage, Cerberus is wandering the countryside like the rabid dog he is, Romulus and Remus do a vicious cameo, Psyche bides her time and teases Eros into motel reverie, Pan is loose on the set, Zeus and Ida Lupino are looking down from Olympus, and the ultimate conflagration is a spaghetti crescendo worthy of a Leone opera.If there's a Drive-In screen still casting images over a cracked tarmac off your dusty interstate, drop the title in the suggestion box. This movie was made for your second date.P.S. Day of Vengeance(aka Blood Loss)won Best Action Feature at the 2009 Staten Island Film Festival. The new LifeSize Entertainment DVD release includes an entertaining commentary track with the director, screenwriter, and cinematographer, and an excellent featurette on the making of the film and its effect on a small town in Mendocino County, California.