 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Whitetail • Year: 2020 • Country: USA • Director: Derek Presley • Main cast: Tom Zembrod, Paul T. Taylor, Billy Blair, Dash Melrose, Ted Ferguson, Jason Coviello • Runtime: 119 minutes • Production company: Alfa Whiskey Entertainment, Muscular Puppy, Whitetail Movie • TRAILER
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I guess it is a very American thing, but when your family is broken after a ravishing event I don’t see how a hunting trip can help bring things back in a good way. I can see being in touch with nature, the elements, and sharing the camaraderie can be positive, but shooting to kill a bunch of deers as a therapy sounds like a stupid thing to me. But, again, I guess it is an American thing and we are not here to judge that.
But it can work as a basic description of the characters, a good setup. The three men have lost the most important woman in their lives, the wife, the sister, and the mother, after a drug overdose. Husband, son, and uncle go on the hunting trip. Well, that defines that we are dealing with very violent people here. And when they find themselves in the situation of encountering a deadly wounded man with a bunch of stolen money their actions will be based on violence and conflict, not on fair thinking and goodness. Even worse, when the family encounters the rest of the men after the money the clash can only bring devastation. It is only a matter of luck how many of them make it out alive. Yep, not many of them will do.
That said, it is very important to understand the kind of characters we are dealing with in a movie like Whitetail (2020). Because, after all, this is the kind of characters movie where the action is very slow and the conversations are long. And it all is surrounded by the wildly arid landscapes of Texas, a setting that already evokes threads and death.
Derek Presley is the writer and director of Whitetail (2020), and he does a good job keeping the audience in the tension level the plot needs. He knows he holds very limited cards, a small bunch of actors, the landscapes, and the strain of the situation that can explode at any second. The characters are thirsty for blood, they just need a small excuse to pull the trigger or wield a big sharp knife. They might be a disparate group, but it comes a time where the greed for the money is gone and all that matters is domination, to prove who is the alpha male. They went to the wildness for a hunt but they became as wild as any other animal out there.
The two hours of running time are dense and dusty, at moments uneasy to watch. But the fact that the movie is a straight arrow, a tale of contained violence with no possible happy ending, can work as a positive asset. This time, simplicity is best. Whitetail (2020) is not for the people who want to have some faith in mankind, because no goodness is found here. Yet, it is an entertaining exercise of a violent thriller without so many violent scenes. Raw as nature can be.
RATE: 6/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt10787484
