★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Intensity 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed and written by Seth Daly
An intense, almost dialogue-free first act kicks off Seth Daly’s feature film debut at the helm. Daly sets up a story that blends the murderous and the highly mysterious.
Official synopsis
Seven-year-old Lucy wakes up in the middle of a mysterious cornfield. She has a bloody wound on her head and no memory of how she got there. Discovering a dead body and an abandoned gun in a nearby clearing, she is immediately confronted by three masked killers searching for her. Deadly games of cat-and-mouse ensue, as Lucy tries to evade the gang while hunting for an exit from the seemingly endless corn. With night falling and the bad guys closing in, Lucy fights to stay alive . . . aided by her family dog and the uncanny golden creature who lives in the rows.
Review: Fear-fare fanatics will want to visit this cornfield
You know those genre films where a young child has the physical and mental wherewithal to escape at least some of their murderous adult pursuers? The character of seven-year-old Lucytakes things to a whole other level in The Rows, writer/director Seth Daly’s confident debut at the helm of a feature film. (Brindisi Dupree in a fun, wonderfully rendered performance.) Luckily for Lucy, she has learned a lot from her time playing video games.
Daly keeps viewers wondering through a virtually dialogue-free first act as to why masked men are chasing a little girl through a cornfield, intending to kill her. Then the plot throws in a curve that not even the most seasoned fright-film fanatics would expect. The second act contains the most dialogue in the film and gives viewers some backstory. I’ll leave the third act as a surprise for first-time viewers.Â
Daly takes some bold risks with The Rows, and largely they pay off. He maintains solid suspense with his nonlinear narrative approach, blending masked marauder and home invasion elements with the possibility of the supernatural.Â
Some viewers may wish for more concrete answers than the film provides. I, however, was highly satisfied with what was left to wonder about. Give into the ambiguity and go along for the ride — or in this case, the run — with The Rows.
Review by Joseph Perry
The Rows had its international premiere at FrightFest on 25th August. The Rows is rated R for violence and bloody content.
