Lowlifes

Film: Lowlifes

Year: 2024

Directors: Tesh Guttikonda and Mitch Oliver

Writers: Al Kaplan

Starring: Amanda Fix, Matthew MacCaull and Brenna Llewellyn

Review:

This is a movie that I heard good things about. The biggest thing that I took away was to come into this blind. Do not look up the trailer or anything outside of the synopsis below. I rather enjoyed this 2024 horror film that is found on Tubi, just to help convince you to see this. I’ve also now given it a second watch to see where I sat with it.

Synopsis: the survival instincts of a road-tripping family are put to the test when they have no other choice but to stay the night at a remote homestead.

I'm going to give a brief recap of the characters without spoiling anything. We are following a family that is taking their RV through the country. The father is Keith (Matthew MacCaull). He is married to Kathleen (Elyse Levesque). They have two children. The elder is their daughter, Amy (Amanda Fix), who we will learn is gay. She has a brother, Jeffrey (Josh Zaharia), who likes to do Mad Libs and has impulse control issues.

This family has a run-in with Vern (Richard Harmon) and Billy (Ben Sullivan). They're looking for their missing cousin, Melior (Todd Masters). This is a tense scene as the cousins are seeing if this family has seen him. They said they didn't and are ready to head on their way. There is another run in with the cousins after their truck breaks down. Billy hitches a ride to get help.

There is also the family that is at the homestead from the synopsis. The grandfather is Neville (Kevin McNulty). He lives there with Billy and his two granddaughters. There is a resourceful and talented Savannah (Brenna Llewellyn). The other one is Juli Ann (Cassandra Sawtell). When these two families meet, it will be a night that neither group will ever forget.

Now that I have that set up, I think I'll do a spoiler section at the end. Until then, this is a movie that has twists and turns that I rather enjoyed. It is aided that the characters play with conventions that we've seen before. That is something that impressed me. It is a movie for people who have seen the troupes already and then takes you on a ride.

Where I want to go to discuss these conventions. First, this would be a hixploitation film. We get that through the characters of Vern and Billy from the first interaction. What I like there is that the family are the outsiders. We've seen this quite a bit in movies in this subgenre where they're from the city and go into an area where they don't necessarily belong. I'd also say that we're getting a variation on a slasher and home invasion with the way that things play out. What I like here is that the characters can hold their own, which is something we don't always see in these subgenres.

Since I am avoiding spoilers for now, I’ll leave the story there. It is quite simple and it is carried more by the acting performances, so that is where I'll go. Again, this helps make this work due to managing expectations. Fix is good as Amy. What I like is that she seems to be getting too old to go on these trips. It turns out to be more than that. I like what she does to bring this character to life. MacCaull is also quite good and Levesque works as his wife. What is interesting here is that the former turns out to be a horrible human being with things that he says as this goes on. The latter is timid, so it works. Zaharia is good for what he brings to his role. The other best performance with Fix and MacCaull though is Llewellyn. I like that when we first meet her and her family, she seems simple. She has the drive and talent to make something out of herself, but she’s afraid to leave the area. That adds tension to reveals later. Other than that, Sawtell, Harmon, McNulty, Sullivan, Alexander Calvert, Dayleigh Nelson and Masters helped round this out for what was needed.

All that is left then is filmmaking. I thought that the cinematography was good to capture where this is set. Being out in the middle of nowhere adds tension since our characters cannot get away easily. The framing is good there as well. This also goes bloody and gory, which was good. They toe that line of not going over the top, which I appreciated. There is something here that also made me cringe with the implications so that works in its favor. I also think that the editing is well done. My only gripe is that there is one character that we go away from, which I noticed with the second watch. I get why but I almost forgot about her. It does well though jumping from different rooms until the action ramps up. Other than that, the soundtrack and design work well for what was needed.

In conclusion, this one I heard good things about and rather enjoyed what we got. How it plays with expectations was something that I enjoyed. It also uses subgenres that are familiar to do different things with them. Acting helps here. The best performances are by Fix, MacCaull and Llewellyn. The rest are good in support. I thought that this was well made. I like how it captures where this is set and gives us a good amount of gore without going over the top. I rather enjoyed this film and would recommend once again to come to see this one blind. It also helped up after a second watch. This one is contending at the backend of my top ten list.

My Rating: 8 out of 10

Spoilers

Now the reveal here is that our family on vacation are cannibals. They take these trips every year as a group. It almost feels like they are going 'hunting'. What is good is that when we first meet them, it is that tense scene with Vern and Billy. This is playing with expectations, because we've seen things like Deliverance or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Normally we meet these backwoods people briefly before they attack the group from the city. Our aggressors are this nondescript white family who are the visitors.

It was then from there that we met Savannah, Juli Ann and Neville. Savannah wants to go to community college but is afraid to fail. Her family also relies on her around the house, so she doesn't want to leave them behind. This family is quite nice and we see that hospitality toward the visitors when they show up. I do like humanizing both families. The country folk don't have much, but they're willing to share. They’re also not the ‘lowlifes’ that Keith says.

Something else that is interesting is the fact that this country family aren’t the prejudiced ones. Savannah is also a lesbian. Juli Ann picks at her, but deep down accepts and loves her. Keith looks down at the country folk. He mocks their house. He doesn't think they deserve to live. We also see there's an issue here that he discovers his daughter is gay. He is irate about it. I thought that was an interesting idea to play. You'd expect this guy to be the one who is tolerant and he's the opposite. We also get the idea that he is abusive toward Kathleen. I'm not sure if he physically hits her or just verbally. There's also Jeffrey who has impulse controls as he kills Billy. This upsets his parents. Amy is skilled at killing but wants to give it up. I like how it is presented that she's just outgrown the family vacations. In reality, she’s envious of Savannah and wants to be ‘normal’. I like what they’re working with here.

I love that all this is in the movie, but we get it as we go on. It sets the stage, makes us think one thing before giving us reveals as we go. That was good filmmaking and the acting performances drove it home.