Director – Brian Dorton (Trashology, Crazy Fat Ethel)
Starring – Lynn Lowry (Shivers, The Crazies), Scarlett Freeman (An Extremely Uncommon Set of Circumstances, All That Remains), and Lucas Dunaway (They See You, Wolf Hollow)
Release Date – 2024
Rating – 2.5/5
It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to review a hixploitation horror flick. I have reviewed several over the years but it’s been a year or so since my last hixploitation flick and, honestly, we need more. A few weeks back director Brian Dorton, who brought us the fantastic remake of Crazy Fat Ethel, messages the Horror Society Facebook page to see if we could review his newest film Early Morning Calm, which stars legend Lynn Lowry. I quickly agreed to it and added it to my watch list.
Sadly, I wasn’t able to get it in during my October horror binge but it’s better late than never. I would like to thank Brian for sending this one over!
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows a father, his daughter, and his mother as they make the trip to his late father’s favorite lake to spread his ashes. However, they have car issues on the backroads to the lake and are forced to stop. When they try to find help or someone to fix their car they accidentally come across a cannibal family who would love to have them over for dinner. **Spoiler Alert**
I’ve reviewed several films from Brian over the years and he has always impressed me. Many years ago I befriended the folks over at Olive Films who was releasing several of Brian’s films on Blu at the time. I fell in love with Trashology and found Brian on social media where I added him to keep up with his future projects. Since then I’ve reviewed a great deal of his films and look forward to every project he announces. I was super excited when he dropped news of Early Morning Calm and I was even more excited when he revealed that living legend Lynn Lowry would be starring in it. When I finally got to watch it I was a bit underwhelmed by it but there was a few moments I enjoyed.
The acting in this one is solid but very inconsistent. Lynn does a solid job and shows that she has decades of experience in front of the camera. However, there is scenes meant to be funny but they couldn’t find their footing. I wanted to laugh at these scenes but the comedic timing just wasn’t right. The rest of the cast is just as solid but we do have several scenes with awkward dialogue and one dimensional performances. I don’t know if they were rushed or or inexperienced but some of the scenes were not as well acted as others.
The story for this one is one we’ve seen many times before. People traveling through rural America, or Appalachia, and find themselves lost, stranded, or both only to fall victim to a cannibal family is something that has went back to the late 60s. Hell, some can even argue that films like Spider Baby may have inspired it while movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Wrong Turn brought similar stories to pop culture status. Regardless, I love these types of stories and could have loved Early Morning Calm if it was a more traditional horror film. However, the humor is out of place and a lot of the dialogue feels forced. This brought the pacing of the film down drastically and made several of the scenes difficult to finish.
Finally, this one has some fun and kills you would expect from a story like this but if you are looking for memorable deaths and a lot of gore then you will be disappointed. The deaths work for the film and can be fun if you are a fan of indie horror. However, if you are expecting deranged deaths and buckets of guts then you are watching the wrong film. Overall, Early Morning Calm has a great cast and a story I could really get behind but it struggles with it’s own identity. The humor is extremely out of place and the lack of memorable deaths makes this one a miss for me. I seriously wanted to like it due to how phenomenal Brian is as a filmmaker but it’s clear this film was not meant for me.
