Hotel Dunsmuir

Here's a rather unusual micro budget outing. It can't really decide what genre it is, but maybe that's not a bad thing? The first part of the movie concerns itself with small town redneck life. What were the inspirations here? Maybe something like Coal Miner's daughter. It aims to show a day to day "white trash" life, with a few hints of the supernatural starting to sneak in. Perhaps the movie spends too much time on this at the start, but I didn't mind it.

It then changes into a different gear, when the Billie character steals her nasty husband's truck and drives to an old hotel that has a ghost in it. At this point the movie has some creepy parts and goes into a different direction. While not for everyone I enjoyed it.

This is not my genre, but found this title when recalling the motel I stayed in DUNSMUIR, CA in 2019. Startled to find this. Dunsmuir is a nice underrated town well above Sacramento. It's not remote as it appears, but just off the I-5 freeway. Great location choice.

Anyway, the story is a complete mess with holes. Yet I feel it's worth recommending. This is atmosphere horror, not very 'slashy'. A road picture, with ghosts and David Lynch ORBS in tow. Thinking about it, this could fall into the "Manos: The Hands of Fate" universe mixed with a "Twin Peaks: The 2017 Return" episode, yet not too derivative.

What stood out was the fantastic cinematography on such a low budget. The director and DP are from contemporary A-list title visual FX crews, and this must be their pet project. For once I could not tell if it was film stock or digital. Great depth and compositions. It was leagues ahead of many A-list shot movies, which have all gotten dark & flat looking to me. I'm an 80s kid who won't let film stock go. If this was digital, I'm blown away.

The lead actress is quite good, and the supporting cast has their moments. Everyone involved seems enthusiastic about what they are doing. Some of the sound editing choices are weak, in addition to handfuls of other flaws, but was never taken out of this film. Accomplishment is a missed opportunity at greatness. Go in expecting a mood piece, not a horror classic. Video cover art makes it look like disposable streaming content, but it's way better than that.

Look up the crazy history of the actual hotel. It's one of many underground architectural anomalies of the distant past that aren't talked about enough. These submerged structures are everywhere. Honestly they could have done more with the underground setting like Joran Peele's "US" had attempted.

I had the pleasure of going and seeing the movie in the cos theater with some of the cast and director, an amazing movie and experience. The entire film was very well done and exciting. Was really neat getting to meat the cast and ask questions and interact with them. The entire crew was great. I absolutely can not wait to see what the director and cast come up with next. I enjoyed the jump scares and the way they utilized the lights and sound track to help portray the moods through the movie. The way they used local attractions and sights was also really amazing. Again I can't wait to see what they come up with next.

I am not much into horror, but have seen so many psychological thrillers. This one tops the list. The acting was superb. Jet Jandreau and Jose Rosete did tremendously well at the start of the film setting up the plot line throughout the entire movie. There were some elements I never expected. Much of the movie was shot in Siskiyou County, California, where I am from. This has become a great place to film movies, like Climb An Angry Mountain from 1970 and Baby Blue Marine in 1976. I look for more great movies to come from Jet Jandreau and others as Hollywood may now be in the shadow of Mount Shasta!

All of the actors in this film deserve a HUGE pat on the back in making it real suspenseful! Tell your friends about it!

I suspect "Hotel Dunsmuir" will divide audiences pretty harshly, but I really liked it. Jen Jandreau plays Billie, a young women who is dealing with a seriously abusive husband. After a particularly unpleasant event, she finally gets up the courage to leave him and go stay with her grandmother.

During her travels she stays a night in Dunsmuir, California at a hotel named the "Hotel Dunsmuir." In an unfortunate coincidence, she runs into a friend of her husband and makes up an awkward excuse as to why she's alone. But during the night, weird, possibly supernatural events start to happen, and she decides to get away as quickly as she can. She also meets a fellow abuse survivor and agrees to take her along on the drive...

As I said, this movie is going to divide viewers. I'm calling it a "slow burn" but that doesn't really communicate how much of a slow burn it is. Part of what makes the movie work so well is Jet Jandreau, who is a revelation here -- she is enormously appealing in the role and gives the character enough emotional weight that we are really, actively rooting for her. That makes the scares and dangers more effective when they show up (and they do show up). And while there are a lot of times where it appears not much is happening, we know her rat of a husband is looking for her and there are sounds in the background that make the sequences really suspenseful.

It's not perfect, of course. Billie is a beautiful, smart, sweet, and pious woman. There's no indication of why she would abandon her life to go live in the sticks with this hideously abusive redneck. Some of the story resolution is probably going to be pretty obvious to viewers. And we have the old "important stuff happens in the poor light so we can't actually see what happened" issue that plagues so many low budget films.

But overall, it hit all the notes for me. As I said, serious slow burn territory so if that turns you off, this might not be the flick for you. But gets a pretty strong recommendation from me.