A Horrible Way to Die

Plot synopsis:
A car drives along a stretch of road. On a pass through wooded hills, the driver, Garrick Turrell, gets out and opens the trunk, revealing a brunette. The young woman is bound and gagged, recoiling in terror as Garrick takes her out of the trunk. He takes her further into the woods, and she whimpers and struggles as he pushes her down on the ground. Garrick appears to want to comfort and calm down the woman, but in the end, he grabs her by the neck, first strangling her and finally snapping her neck. Garrick drives away in his car.The movie then cuts to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, where we meet our main character, Sarah, who has been sober for three months. Another fellow alcoholic, Kevin, invites her to dinner to celebrate. She offers instead to meet him for lunch on Thursday.During their date, Sarah is shy and timid. The fact that there are wine bottles along a wall near the restaurant's entrance has them both a little awkward.Garrick is being moved to another prison. He offers no resistance and stares into space. A loose screw rolls around on the floor of the police car.Sarah is at work in a dental office where she works as a hygienist. Her co-worker asks her about her date, and encourages her not to write it off just yet, even though she doesn't feel ready to go any further.Garrick arrives at a rest stop with public showers. He showers, washes his hair, and shaves off his beard. Flashbacks show his escape from the police car, and an officer with his throat ripped wide open. That night, at a motel, his TV plays a news report about a nationwide manhunt for him. Despite being a serial murderer, Garrick has a very large fan base, and some women have actually written expressing an interest in marrying him. Appearing to wrestle with more inner demons, he finally goes into the restroom where a naked blonde woman lies dead in the tub, her throat cut.In the morning, Garrick is following another woman, having more memory flashbacks.Kevin drops Sarah off at her house after their date. Although she is timid about it, she finally leans in and kisses him before her awkwardness makes her pull back. Kevin is very forgiving and understanding, not pressuring her into anything. He offers to see her again, and she says she'll call him soon.Sarah has a memory flashback showing she was formerly Garrick's girlfriend. She loved him then, and he treated her well. The memories leave her unable to sleep, and she teeters dangerously close to drowning her sorrows in more alcohol before regaining control and flushing the bottle's contents down her toilet.Garrick drives down the road at twilight, listening to a radio news report on the manhunt for him. He's been at large for seven days now, and the FBI is coordinating with all local agencies, setting up checkpoints at both the Canadian and Mexican borders.At an AA meeting Sarah listens to another woman tell a story about herself. The meeting leader asks Sarah about confronting her own alcoholism, and she trips over her words a number of times, only able to say that she was in a bad relationship and came to understand that her alcoholism was tied to it.As Sarah enters her car, Kevin is there, impressed at how she's starting to open up about herself. He assures her that like her, everyone there has more to tell, but just aren't ready yet. He'd very much like to hear her stories, but only when she's comfortable with them. Sarah suddenly invites Kevin over to her house for tea. Tea leads to kissing, which leads to them starting to have sex, but ultimately Kevin can't go through with it. Sarah gently tells him it's okay.We see another flashback: Garrick is forcing the woman he'd been tailing to drive him through a police checkpoint. He quietly explains step by step how she can get through without any suspicion. After they're through, the woman begs tearfully for her life, saying her family expected her home a half hour ago. Of course, Garrick ends up killing her. We see him get out of the car, holding the knife, slumping near the left front wheel of the car, and the camera pans to show the woman sitting behind the wheel, the window dotted with blood.The memory flashback shows Sarah waking up at the sound of Garrick leaving in the middle of the night to go for a walk.In the waking world, Sarah wakes up and greets Kevin, who's spent the night. He's made coffee for her, and was going to have made her breakfast, but her refrigerator is empty. He offers to take her to breakfast.Garrick fills his gas tank when an old man strikes up small talk. Seeing the newspaper stand showing an article about the manhunt for him, Garrick stands in front of the stand as the man rambles about nearby power lines having transponders, and now that the country has a black president, he's using them to spy on people. The man advises Garrick swapping his car, which has a plastic roof, for one with a steel roof, which the transponders can't read through. Garrick politely listens and accommodates the man, before going to his car and driving off.At breakfast, two of Kevin's friends find him at the counter with Sarah. Rusty does all the talking, while Reed is quiet. Kevin used to drink with them before joining AA. Rusty and Reed only stay long enough for coffee before heading out to give Kevin time alone with Sarah.Another memory flashback shows Garrick again leaving Sarah's house in the middle of the night. This time Sarah gets up and follows him.Sarah comes in to work to find that her co-worker, Carla, hasn't shown up. Sarah steps outside and calls her, leaving a message on Carla's voice mail.Garrick enters a bar/grill and buys a meal. As he eats, radio news continues to talk about the search for him, asking for any information not only on leads to his whereabouts, but about anyone who might be suspected of aiding and sheltering him. Internet fan sites abound, and a Facebook page for his fans numbers in the hundreds of thousands.Two men are leaving the bar/grill when one says he left something inside. Garrick, suspecting the man may have recognized him, feigns illness and ambushes and murders both of them.Sarah goes to Carla's house and knocks on her door, but there is no answer. She sees Carla's landlord, Mr. Harper, working his yard and asks about her. The landlord says he last saw Carla two days before. She gives him her name and asks him to have Carla call her if he sees Carla again.Sarah meets Kevin for lunch. She tells Kevin that Carla didn't show up for work and didn't answer her doorbell. Kevin offers to bring her to the police after their AA meeting, but Sarah, feeling timid again, tries to assure herself that Carla is okay.At the meeting, a man named Warner talks about the two young men who were killed. He was acquainted with them and sometimes drank with them, and the murder has shaken him, making him think he could have been with them and also gotten killed. One of the young men was also a meth cooker, and Warner thinks the killing might have been drug related.Mr. Harper knocks on Carla's door, concerned for her. He goes around to the back and lets himself in with his spare key, calling out to her. He finds Carla's body lain on the sofa, covered in dried blood.Garrick is seen watching outside the orthodontics office where Sarah works. Sarah hurries out of the office in tears after having learned of Carla's murder.Kevin hurries to Sarah's house, running to hold and comfort her after having gotten her frantic call. Unable to control her fear, Sarah is only able to tell Kevin some of the story, that she knows that her ex-boyfriend killed Carla as a warning to Sarah that he's found her and is coming after her now. Sarah is also afraid that her ex will now kill Kevin, too, for being involved with her. Kevin tells her that his parents have a cabin in a secluded area where he can take her, and they'll be safe.A memory flashback shows Sarah driving up to a public storage facility. She clips the lock for one locker with heavy bolt cutters and goes inside. She finds a large meat hook hanging from the ceiling and an electric drill. Clipping a heavy chain holding a large container closed, she finds the butchered body of a woman. Police race to the scene and ask Sarah about the owner of the locker. Even as she gives them Garrick's work address, she tries to tell herself and the officers that he wasn't responsible for murdering the woman.As Kevin drives to the cabin, Sarah is telling him her story. Kevin says he'd read about everything in the papers, and had heard of Garrick. Sarah's name and likeness, however, were never published as part of a deal in return for her testimony. They arrive at the cabin and Kevin opens the gate, saying they have to walk the rest of the way.Playing cards at the table are Rusty and Reed. Kevin confronts them, wanting to know what the hell they're doing there. Rusty says he's tired of waiting and wants to get down to business. Kevin suddenly turns-- and lays into Sarah with a wicked left fist to her jaw, knocking her unconscious.A memory flashback shows Garrick and Sarah in bed. Garrick suddenly asks Sarah how she would choose to die if she knew her death was imminent, but she could choose how it happened. Sounding not quite sober, Sarah says she'd take a morphine overdose. Garrick, on the other hand, thinks he would do something more hardcore, like a kamikaze pilot.Sarah awakens in the cabin; she's tied up and suspended upside down from the ceiling. Kevin, Rusty and Reed watch over her. They reveal that Reed, not Garrick, was Carla's murderer. Sarah's fate appears very bleak as they further reveal that Kevin hero-worships Garrick, and the three of them had spent a great deal of time tracking down the woman who put him behind bars, Kevin posing as a recovering alcoholic to get close to her, and finally they have her as their prisoner, to have their way with her and bring her to a grisly end the way Garrick would have and should have. They say the best place to start is to break Sarah's feet, because if she can't walk, she can't run or escape, and this would break her spirit. Reed and Rusty tightly cover Sarah's mouth to quiet her terrified screams and sobs as they start to torture her.The dark ritual is interrupted by a knock at the door. How anyone else even knew about the cabin, let alone were able to find it, is a mystery. Kevin seems to know, however. He answers the door and Garrick walks in. Kevin had sent Garrick letters of admiration, including a code that helped him find where Sarah had escaped to, and how to find the cabin.But suddenly Garrick asks what they're doing to Sarah, and when they say they're finishing his work, finishing off the woman who put him away, Garrick reveals that he didn't break out of prison to finish Sarah off, but to save her from Kevin and his cohorts. Until then, he says, he was actually very content in prison and in solitary, because he couldn't hurt anyone else there-- especially Sarah. He doesn't blame Sarah for putting him away; in fact he believes that she saved not only many others who he might have killed, but also saved Garrick from himself. The only reason Garrick escaped from prison and killed again, was because of the letters Kevin sent him about the plans to finish Sarah off... so that Garrick could save her.As Garrick speaks, he stealthily pulls a hidden knife. Making further small talk as a distraction, he buries the knife in Rusty's temple, grabs his gun and shoots Reed. Kevin, however, gets the drop on him, and stabs him with another long knife. Garrick is gravely wounded, but alive, and as Kevin tries to apologize, calling Garrick his hero, Garrick shoots and kills him.Sarah tearfully begs Garrick to untie her. Her pleas make it seem that a part of her still loves Garrick even now. Despite how gravely wounded he is, Garrick is able to untie Sarah and undo the rigging suspending her from the cabin ceiling. As he gently lowers her to the ground, he starts to succumb to his wounds. After a brief flashback with some recollections of Sarah and Garrick as a couple, Sarah stands up and exits the cabin without comforting him or showing him any gratitude. Garrick falls down to the ground and quietly dies alone.The movie ends as Sarah stumbles out of the cabin, back toward Kevin's car, to return to civilization.

Tags: violence, murder, flashback

Review:
Lots of people die in this movie, either on screen or off, and one person comes very close to dying, and all of the methods used are pretty horrible."A Horrible Way to Die" brings an admittedly unique spin to the serial killer movie.
It uses mixed up chronology to tell the story of a woman whose boyfriend, a convicted serial killer, escapes from prison and comes back to find her, and the efforts of a new love interest to help her and keep her safe.
The wacky order in which the story is told makes it feel richer than it probably is, and there are some major plot twists toward the end (up there with some of the biggest) that are handled less than delicately (you can practically hear the gears grinding at one point as the movie shifts into an entirely new direction).
And stylistically it feels like a film made by a film student who's been itching to get his hands on a camera and can't control himself once he has -- the camera is always, I mean ALWAYS, moving, randomly zooming, drifting off to the edges of the frame, going out of focus.
The movie was filmed in a very artistic, independent, simplistic way that connects the viewer with the characters in a personal way that makes the ordeal effective and all too real which makes the sinister acts very disturbing and chilling.
The film has a very familiar theme that we've seen before as a serial killer escapes from prison and begins to kill again but to me it hasn't quite been done like this before and makes the thriller different from the norm and ends on a surprising and powerful note.
The movie did have suspense in it and some bloody scenes but it's done in a less is more way making it have a classic feel but this movie is smarter than that and relied more on character depth, performances and story than anything else which it mostly succeeded on.
Overall if you like your serial killer movies to have a more deeper meaning and not over the top like it was back in the day you might find something to appreciate about A Horrible Way To Die but don't expect a lot of gore, scares and action but more on mood, atmosphere and suspense and even at that it a pretty slow burn of a movie but a decent one at that.
Other than knowing a brief plot outline of an escaped murderer on the hunt of his ex-girlfriend, I had no idea what I was getting into when going to see Adam Wingard's latest, A Horrible Way To Die. Just so you're aware, as far as plot goes, that is all you have to know before heading off to see this film.
Both of which I am not, enabling me to absolutely love this film.Constant shots of close-ups and not just on the actors' faces but knuckles, waists and other body parts (get your mind out of the gutter) as well as random objects around them effectively brought me into the characters' personal space with an intimacy most other mainstream films lack.
A Horrible Way to Die was in a 3 DVD movie box presented by Night Vision.
Also A Horrible Way To Die is a very straight-forward title, but the movie is far from it.
The "seriously boring art drama" feel was also enhanced by the way this film was shot.
Of course I don't believe in chronological narrative anymore, because breaking the story with flashbacks work most of the time, but in A Horrible Way to Die it was sometimes really hard to tell when something happened.
Of course this was enhanced by the cinematography, because you can't always see the characters and what they look like, and then realise when that scene took place and all that.The writing of this film is good though.
The slowness itself is not a sign of bad writing in general, but when you watch a horror movie it's frustrating when everything happens at the last minute.
But the story might work well as a novel.A Horrible Way to Die is an interesting movie to say the least.
I see no need for watching a movie that has no consistent plot, no story line that we can derive from the events, and no underlying motive to see a series of people killed in cold blood.
How these two stories relate we come to find out in flashbacks as this movie progresses.Turns out that the killer is a convicted serial killer who managed to escape while being transported somewhere.
But there is a twist in the relationship between her and the new guy.A Horrible Way to Die is a good title for a horror movie, except that it doesn't have anything to do with this movie.
It's just not enough- not enough horror, not enough violence, not enough gore- after all this movie involves a serial killer..
It looks like they just blasted some lights, cranked the shutter speed and did hand-held to make an "artistic" movie.
I'm a huge fan of Gaspar Noe, and I appreciate directors who "break the rules." These guys do nothing but shaky hand-held the whole time, and man is it annoying!
Gaspar Noe films make you interested and actually want to watch the rest of the movie, not take your eyes off screen because you have a head ache.This movie is not much more than a student film with a really nice camera and good actors.
A Horrible Way to Die is a great example of a movie for people who can appreciate the craft of filmmaking and storytelling..
so when it comes to a lot of people, A Horrible Way to Die will mostly likely disappoint because it doesn't follow a humdrum and redundant horror movie formula: blood, guts, haunted places, monsters, deranged psychopaths stalking people, etc...watch this movie if you're looking to watch a GOOD movie in general.
and because the horror genre is vast, it seems too many people make horror movies with only blood and guts in mind (which isn't always a bad thing).
the story in this movie is attentive to appreciating the craft of MAKING a good story.generalized example horror plot (that has nothing to do with this film):a movie about someone breaking into a house and terrorizing the family inside.it's a basic concept that's been done a million times and will be made a million more times.
Plain and simple, the cinematography looked as if the camera person had just walked in to the nearest Wal Mart and bought a point and shoot HD camera minutes before filming began!
I, of course, presumed that AHWTD was just another B-Horror movie belonging to the 'torture-porn' genre, and therefor, most likely a waste of time.
I mean, really, it's almost unwatchable-maybe the director had some artistic statement in mind (attempting to give the film a feeling of 'visceral reality'?), or if the camera man just didn't have a the ability to stay in focus or to keep a steady hand.
I'm a man that values aesthetic, and I like movies to look beautiful-and if they don't..Well, I expect there to be a reason for that (for instance, it makes sense that the camera work looks shaky in a movie like 'The Blair Witch Project').
I suppose some might argue that the hand-held shaky camera-work adds a flair of 'grit' to the film, but I would argue that it does not (after all, Bad Leutenant got it's point across while still staying in focus), and instead creates the impression that the cinematographer was relying on a corny gimmick to cover up his lack of talent.
There is absolutely no reason that half the film has to be out of focus.Secondly, I would have to disagree with the assertion that the writing in 'A Horrible Way To Die' is anything above average.
It's hard to tell in movies like this if this is the product of the script itself or bad acting, but I'm going to go with the latter.
I almost feel as if they got their impression of 'The Program' from other movies.Anyway, I have to admit, I only watched 3/4 or the film, because quite frankly, the quality became to abrasive for my taste.
I don't mind low-budget films if the film-maker knows how to work within that limited budget (a great example of this is Mark Flannegans' 'Absentia', or the Sci-Fi time travel film 'Primer', supposedly filmed with a $7,000 budget), but that is not the case with 'A Horrible Way to Die', which instead looks at best like an ambitious student film that despite it's efforts, fails.I will say that for what they were given to work with in terms of the script, the acting was pretty good, and that's probably the movies' one redeeming quality.
I see a lot of people making claims like it's a 'hidden gem', and I imagine if you went into the movie with the expectation that it was going to be the the worst film in the history of cinema you might walk away with that point of view, but in to me it was an incredibly mediocre, predictable thriller..
Refreshing as it is to see attempts made to reinvigorate the played out serial killer genre movie it seem that in this and to a certain extent in the ludicrously over rated Australian film "Snowtown" the only thing "new" the director can bring is annoying camera work.
This movie is particularly irritating asA) Between almost every scene change the picture fades out and then fades in again.B) It would appear that even though some of the actors are portraying recovering alcoholics it is in fact the camera man who is drunk.C)The doom laden score plays too often promising tension that is never delivered.D)Although filmed in widescreen there is little scope to the cinematography - it may as well be pan and scan.E) In the sorry end this is nothing but a generic serial killer movie and a poor one at that.Yet again for the millionth time - DO NOT believe the hype.
Eventually the connection between these stories is revealed.While absolutely no match for "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" (the high water mark for this genre), "A Horrible Way to Die" is an entertaining, and very grim, independently made film.
He deliberately goes for a rather drab look for the film, and the only major annoyance that this viewer had regarding the technical aspects was the way that damn camera would refuse to stay still.
Expecting something like "Tony : London Serial Killer" what I got was a very disappointing and shallow look at a movie that wants to be more than it is.
The fact is, you never feel like you are getting into the mind of this killer.
The acting was fine and there were some genuine decent moments, but the film wants realism, and the biggest killer to the realism is in the ending.
I am not going to spoil it, but I thought "no way, this is basic horror movie stuff".
I thought that it was a cheap way to end what was a film that was lacking the positives that made films like "Henry" and "Tony" the films that they are in the Serial Killer sub genre.If you want a good serial killer movie, check out the films I just mentioned.
Therefor choosing AJ to play the lead was actually a very good idea, that helps the movie a lot.The final resolution of the movie and some of the characters is too convenient and predictable as mentioned, but if you can overlook that, you will get a thriller that knows what it wants.
They couldn't even afford fake blood - so they filmed all the murders off camera.The only reason I did not shut the movie off after the first 15 minutes was twofold - first: a lot of the actors were actually decent.
The lead actors do such a fantastic job of making us care or loathe for these believable and well structured characters that it can be easy to forgive the film for its shortcomings in its questionable cinematography and irritating shooting style.
A horrible way to watch a movie.
A horrible way to watch a movie.
Just watched this movie and the whole thing is a slow burner with many deaths on the way but you have to watch this..
There is a lot to admire here, mainly a great lead performance by Amy Seimetz as the alcoholic ex-girlfriend of a serial killer trying to re-establish a normal life.
For most of its running time this plays more as a drama (that happens to involve a serial killer) than as horror.
A little of this would be fine but it never lets up, this movie is 87 minutes of random close-ups with a camera that won't hold still.
Unfortunately, I couldn't watch this film due to the shaky camera..I turned it off after 10 minutes.
I've missed a lot of good (looking) movies because of the awful camera work...
This movie should be shown as an example to film students on how to deliver a story line.
The story itself had a lot of excellent twists and turns that really kept me very interested.The acting was pretty good as well for a low budget thriller.
The bad reviews of this film must be by people that want their stories laid out for them on a silver platter within 5 minutes.
This one keeps you thinking and you truly don't know what is going on for a good 40 min of the movie.
Either that or they couldn't get past the strange camera work.If you appreciate something that's different and a really good story delivery.
Looks like it was filmed with a hand-held cell phone.
I refuse to watch any movie that looks like it was filmed with a hand-held cell phone camera which is exactly what this movie is like.
An escaped murderer (AJ Bowen) is in pursuit of his ex-girlfriend (Amy Seimetz), who has fled to start a new life in a small town.Director Adam Wingard, best known for the indie flick "Pop Skull", is a guy who focuses on style.
I am all about the writing, not so much the visuals of a film (which actually seems odd given my love of Dario Argento).The visuals Wingard is associated with are here, with some camera shots pointing away from the subjects, a gritty grindhouse appearance, and "light spots" in scenes that clearly do not benefit from having spots over important characters.
He might be (and I mean that in the nicest possible way).The film has something of an unusual shower scene, at least from my point of view.
And you have to respect a man who shaves his beard into a mustache -- mustaches are hard to pull off, but if you are a serial killer, you can do this.Keeping characters and times straight is a bit complicated, distracting and somewhat annoying.
His ex-girl friend is in hiding and under witness protection because she testified against him.But, the cinematography was so bad, it was hard to follow the story.I think the director got a string of Christmas lights and decided to use them in an out of focus foreground for a 'anxiety' effect.
You might try a tight story line, good actors, and scenes and presto a movie and a tripod.Rather than move you into the story, such techniques take you out of the story since you are very aware of the effects and fail to follow the story.
But maybe the cinematographer had the d'ts'Pulp Fiction had very little 'artsy out of focus lights' as an effect to get the audience in a tipsy mood.Story line wasn't bad, but ruined by the constant use of out of focus lights and jumpy camera work.
The filming is rather amateurish giving the viewer a headache watching the movie with so much camera shakes and sways which was done on purpose for unnecessary effects.
In fact, I must confess I love this movie, great acting, we can observe the stugle of a serial Killer and the desire vs the guilt of killing is victims.
A good independent film despite the camera work.
A Horrible Way to Die follows both Sarah's and Garrick's stories both  in the past together and separately as the two begin a path that will  surely have them reunite.
Director Adam Wingard (Pop Skull, 2007) uses  a single camera that constantly zooms in and out of focus as his  shooting style to bring their story to the screen.
But for an independent and low budget film, A Horrible Way to Die is  above average.
He graciously answered my questions, and I've been a fan ever since.A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE is a complex but easy-to-follow story that takes you on a suspense-filled emotional roller coaster ride.
Their facial expressions made it for me...the killer's inner turmoil was so evident on his face that the viewer almost feels sorry for him at several points during the film.It is difficult to go into details about how wonderful this movie was without turning it into one big spoiler.
True to the name of the film, several people did die in horrible (and creative) ways.The two main actors gave a flawless performance.
The close-ups were perfectly timed.The only thing that bothered me was the camera work between scenes.
It seemed odd that the transitions were so bad and the rest of the camera work was so utterly perfect.I was very impressed with this movie.
The movie didn't feel like a slasher film.
AJ Bowen is very powerful as unrepentant serial-killer Garrick Turrell, Sarah's ex, who escapes from prison apparently to pursue her and end the lives of a few others along the way.