Director: Jacob Ennis
Production Company: Tucky Wood Productions
Genre: Horror
One Sentence Synopsis: Deadly pot farmer forces would be crooks into a twisted game of life or death.
Series: Standalone
Release Date: 2007
Running Time: 77 min.
Website: Click Here
Trailer: Click Here
Reviewed by: Reverend Leviathan
Final Score: 3 Moons (out of 5)
Ol’ Bud’s a big, burly marijuana farmer from the hills of Eastern Kentucky. While Bud has a growing operation, it’s not his only secret: down in his damp, dark, blood-soaked basement is a more sinister and frightening one.
When two local would-be crooks hear that Bud’s leaving town for a few days, they hatch a plan to relieve him of 20 pounds of homegrown. But before they make off with the stash, Bud catches them red-handed and forces them into a bloody game of life or death…a game where drugs, kidnapping, torture and rape are just the beginning.
Story
Nothing catches your attention at the beginning of a movie more quickly than seeing random cutaways of a completely nude woman screaming and running through the woods. In the horror genre this could be an indication of a really bad situation, a really bad movie, or a combination of both. With Stash I’d say it’s about 70/30.
The Stash storyline is not one that’s unfamiliar in horror movies (ie nice girl ends up in horrible situation). However, each director gives their own vision and twist on that typical story, and Mr. Ennis definitely succeeded in telling a familiar story in an unfamiliar way, and for Northerners it’s told in an unknown stereotypical setting. CJ (Nathan Day), one of the main characters, comes off as a southern homeboy who could really annoy some viewers, but for me it added to my ability to hate his character (he’s not meant to be loveable). His friend Stan (Stacey T. Gillespie) is somewhat reminiscent of “Junior” in The Last House on the Left; he’s got a sort of innocence about him and you feel that he’s just fallen in with a bad crowd.
Bud (Kevin Taylor) is the main enemy and he comes off as a stereotypical hillbilly that has some pretty creepy secrets. There are times when he made me think to myself, “Oh, my God! Did that really happen? Am I truly seeing this?” He makes the character believable and also gets one to think about how there are people like him in the real world. The ending of the film was unexpected for me and I was satisfied with it.
Presentation
The editing and camerawork in the film was very good. At times the audio was not up to par but you could still understand what the characters were saying. The musical score in the film was amazing and blended well with the dialogue and locales. You really get a taste of southern flavor when you hear the banjo and country music from time to time. The scenes that involved dreams and flashbacks had good color and audio changes to give the vibe of hallucination.
Gothic Fit
This movie did not have many elements that appealed to my Gothic nature. What really appealed to me is that the style of the movie really took me back to the old-school horror films, which I prefer, and it didn’t come off as just a movie filled with blood, screams and gore. (It was also appealing in the fact that I am a Kentuckian.)
Closing Thoughts
Take The Last House on the Left and the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre; add some weed, moonshine and a little bit of old Kentucky bluegrass and you come out with the greatness of Stash.
Story: 4.0 Moons (out of 5.0)
Presentation: 3.5 Moons (out of 5.0)
Gothic Fit: 2.0 Moons (out of 5.0)
Final Score (not an average): 3.0 Moons (out of 5.0)
