★★★★ out of ★★★★★
🩸out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Strack Azar and Michael Stevantoni.
Imagine if Terrance Malik directed a horror film. This isn’t the start of a bad joke with an equally bad punchline. Would it have gore? Chainsaws? Over-the-top supernatural happenings? Or would it be a somber and contemplative affair? If you know the films of Terrance Malik then you know the answer.
The Banality (AKA Death Letter Blues), which recently played at the Popcorn Frights Film Festival, answers all these questions just like you think they would. Described as a “terrifying meditation on the need for human connection”, The Banality is an American gothic look at the lies people tell and whether or not those lies ultimately have consequences for the spiritual afterlife.
The film, directed by Michael Stevantoni and Strack Azar, follows a priest in Mississippi who comes across a young boy who’s effectively been living in nearby swampy woods his entire life. The priest convinces the family that has discovered the “feral boy” to take him under their wing and raise him as their own.
Immediately jumping 11 years into the future, Feral Boy is a well-ish adjusted teen, and his adopted parents continue to provide a loving and safe home for him. However, questions around his appearance continue to linger. Why him? Why us? Is this part of God’s plan? Is Feral Boy a symbol of something greater or just nothing at all?
The exceptionally cast Father Moss (Sherman Augustus from Stranger Things and Into the Badlands) also wanders through a series of spiritual questions as he works on the rougher edges of adherence to his faith. A questionable relationship with a local diner waitress, an equally questionable relationship with some of his parishioners, and an on-again/off-again relationship with Feral Boy.
As the rural Mississippi community trundles through answering life’s existential questions, it is shaken to its core when they discover the “hit and run” death of Feral Boy. Everyone in the community is complicit in answering these deeper questions about life — but most importantly, did Feral Boy’s existence have any larger or grander meaning for the individuals who he touched?
The Banality is most certainly lowercase “H” horror. You won’t find any howling ghouls or knife-wielding lunatics. There are a handful of dreamy faux supernatural scenes courtesy of a series of nightmares that Father Moss experiences. But again, nothing that screams horror. At least not in the traditional sense.
Filled with absolutely stunning cinematography and an American roots soundtrack, The Banality is a beautiful film that asks the audience to ask themselves basic questions about their own spirituality and meaning. Clocking in at an hour and twenty minutes, The Banality is able to get at these complex and ethereal questions in a tidy and efficient manner that’s devoid of boring and pompous exposition.
Don’t go looking for masked madmen and ghoulish grins, but do settle in for some thoughtful treatment of life’s more puzzling puzzles courtesy of a stylish bit of Southern gothic horror.
The Banality (AKA Death Letter Blues) is likely PG-13 and recently screened at Popcorn Frights Film Festival.