Badlands of Kain (2016)

Excellent but underrated film

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Kris (Katrina Norman) and Shannon (Rachelle Dimaria) are besties on a road trip from California to Flagstaff Arizona. Along a back road, Ladybug, the best car in the world, breaks down. They are rescued by Father Terry (Paul Soter) of Kain who also operates a wrecker service. The town is odd and the girls are anxious to get on the road.Yes this is similar to a couple of movies I won't name to prevent spoiling the plot. I even had a clever title to go along with it. Let's just say I enjoyed the other films more than this one. This film took too long to develop and the payoff I had already figured out. The acting was passable. The film was more of a Twilight Zone type of thriller than horror. Decent film with a nice surprise.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

As one reviewer noted, this is like a Twilight Zone episode stretched into a movie. However, it's actually a mystery/drama movie that could easily air on the Lifetime Channel. There is nothing scary in this movie. Not one thing that in this movie is scary that'll classify this as a horror movie. So if you're looking for a horror movie of any kind, gore or psychological, you won't find it here.This mystery genre lacks suspense or thrills until the last 25 minutes. This movie was an hour and 50 minutes long. Up until the last 25 minutes, there was no tension, chills, thrills, moody atmosphere, or engaging situations. Nothing happened. The entire movie's story was revealed within the last 25 minutes. That kinda stuff simply does not work for an hour 50 minute movie. At first, I kept saying, "Any minute now something interesting is gonna happen." repeatedly until the 60 minute mark. Then after that, I said, "I don't care what happens. I just feel like finishing this flick because I have a vague desire to see what this is all about." All in all, a totally pointless movie. As another review noted, nothing happens. Not a thing. The characters weren't engaging for me to care about their fate. So what was the point of this flick? I'm not sure even the director knows the point of this movie.

Nothing happens. You as the audience will find yourself pointing at the television and asking the characters why they are so stupid. By the time something finally does happen, you've lost interest. You're probably checking your Facebook account to see if someone liked the picture of your dog that you took earlier that day or you are catching up on sports scores. The characters are uninteresting. The creepy guy isn't creepy, which I find odd because there are so many creepy people out there. They should have spit out their window on a Sunday and found someone better. The acting is bad. I'm not sure why anyone liked this movie. I think sometimes people are "supposed to" like boring movies to justify why they wasted their time watching it. My advice though is to skip it.

I just randomly watched this movie with no expectations. I didn't read any reviews or watch any previews. The best way to sum it up is it's an episode of the twilight zone made into a movie. It is quite good and will likely keep you guessing. If you have nothing to watch, I definitely recommend it.This is a somewhat thought provoking movie. Not something that you will finish watching and instantly forget about. It has quite a bit to say about a variety of topics.The only real negative is the annoying over the top acting of one of the girls; especially in the beginning.