Bullies

Criminally unsung British horror movie maverick Paul 'Prom Night' Lynch's super intense backwoods nightmare is not only blessed with another righteous Paul Zaza soundtrack and the deliciously luminous presence of Olivia D'Abo but is an usually bleak and mean-spirited redneck head-wrecker about the suburbanite Morris family moving to a rather isolated ski-resort town and instead of enjoying a little respite from the stresses of the big bad city only to discover the country can present a uniquely unpleasant threat all of its own. Very soon all the members of the Morris family have a series of increasingly violent confrontations with wealthy, profoundly inhospitable land owners The Cullens, a despotic clan of thugs who run the town like it was their own personal fiefdom. The director does a bravura job of raising the volatility of his bellicose 'Bullies' to a feverish pitch of intensity, delivering a truly exhilarating and breathlessly satisfying, if not to mention highly combustible conclusion!

While the film is far from unpredictable there is an undeniable primal viscerality to Lynch's pulse-pounding filmmaking which maintains rigorous interest throughout, cannily replacing originality with unleavened emotional force. It must be added that youngsters Jonathan Crombie and Olivia D'Abo truly make a delightful pair of greatly embattled lovers. Great stuff! Blu-ray Please!!!!