Fairlane Road (2016)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I will preface this by saying that I stopped paying super close attention to the movie and my understanding of what was happening towards the end was a little not great since so many things were happening all at once. But I will say this movie had one of the most anti climatic endings I have ever seen in at least the past 14(?) indie movies I've seen. Let me just cover the last half of the movie. Warning this spoils the ending that I really didn't like so be warned.*** OK so weird stuff starts popping up in the desert and there's this crazy lady that keeps trying to kill Greg Grunberg (I couldn't remember the character's actual name but he looked a lot like Greg Grunberg) or something and he's all like "whats up with that who is that crazy lady" and then the uncle that he's staying with reveals the big twist and he's like "that's your mom Greg and then Greg's like "noooo that's impossible i just talked to my mom on the phone" and then the uncle is like "NO Greg that's not your mom your mom is dead and she's actually a ghost which is that crazy lady that tried to kill you" and he's like "THIS IS BULLSH*T" and then the uncle is like "i'm going to end this and gets his gun to go shoot the ghost lady (I think?), but then Greg Grunberg try's to stop him for some reason and says not to do that but his uncle (who i think was also revealed to be his dad) pushes him onto the floor or something and then the rattle snake from the car from earlier i told you guys about slithers up to Greg Grunberg like it's gonna bite him and then his uncle (dad?) is like "no!" and then tries to shoot the snake but he misses and the bullet actually hits Greg Grunberg and then Greg actually dies and that's ACTUALLY THE END OF THE MOVIEgiving it a 3/10 because i at least was able to like watch the entire movie.

I like horror movies. Most horror movies on Netflix are awful and low- budget and unwatchable after 20 minutes. So my expectations are low.This was low-budget but not terrible. One of the few horror flicks set in the Southwest U.S. so that's unusual. The desert landscape plays a big role in the movie. Another reviewer said the acting was terrible. The acting was fine for the most part. The build-up to the climax was good. The climax itself was disappointing and kind of confusing. Throughout the movie, there's a weird dynamic between the mother and son that isn't fully explored or explained. Minor spoiler: a certain character's last words are kind of dumb. Either say something else or have him not say anything. Some scenes could've been shot a little better, even on the low budget. Like the title of this review says, it's a better than average horror flick on Netflix. Much better than a lot of them.

So I'm going to go out of my way to write a review for a movie that doesn't need a review. Basically this movie was garbage. Terrible acting all throughout the movie. Main actor was cringe-worthy and unrelatable. All the supporting actors were terrible. The scenes didn't work together or barely make sense. One scene in particular where the main character is chasing after a women who has a stilted up leg and cannot catch up with her even tho he can full on sprint.Every time he turns a corner shes farther away. And not in like a creepy ghosty way just a bad way. The cgi was terrible. The mother or whatever is insanely annoying. Makeup was bad. The list goes on. The only redeemable factors in this movie is the location is somewhat interesting. I realize this movie had an extremely low budget but god it was bad. I would barely call this a thriller. If you see this on netflix just watch something else.

I saw this movie in a sneak preview back in September of this year with an audience in Pasadena that really didn't know what to expect, and ended up being pleasantly surprised. What threw me at first is that I kept expecting jump-scares and such, but the director-writers instead just kept building the tension all the way through the movie up until the twist ending. I guess I'd have to say it's more old-fashioned story-telling, and I like that sometimes. The performances range from good to just okay, and the VFX are always at least acceptable - we were told at the screening that the budget was only $30,000, pretty amazing! The strongest points of this movie are that it's compelling story, augmented with lovely cinematography of desert visuals. It would be interesting to see this script remade with big names and a decent budget. I give it a 6.