I just got around to watching "Hunter's Blood" for the first time last weekend and that was a complete hoot, so riding upon that success I decided to give this surely unknown independent backwoods thriller a shot.
Dallas Hayes has asked his younger businessman brother Joey to be his business partner in a proposed enterprise of Dallas having a hunting guide operation in the Rocky Mountain wilderness. Joey has come down to experience it and also to catch up with his brother who he rarely sees, but what they encounter on the journey is a shocking discovery of Dallas' best friend's body and Joey runs into a young lady Stevie, being chased by some demented mountain men. An altercation between the groups leaves one of the mountain men dead and the brothers and girl soon find themselves being stalked.
"Brothers in Arms" is immensely cookie-cutter mechanisms for its tough, hellish sub-genre, but while it stayed mildly interesting (even with its slow-winding pace) and fairly violent (although not that explicit even with its streamlined cruel streak), it really did struggle to sustain intensity when it tried to go for broke. The danger is there, however the suspense is dampen by how quickly the villains are dispatched and the ending is somewhat anticlimactic. It's well-shot (plenty of scope framing the beautiful Colorado scenery), ably directed (if a little too methodical) but in all it just feels second rate and there's almost a made for TV like quality to it. The character interactions are not quite black and white (a rocky relationship between the brothers with this stressful ordeal making sure certain issues fester their way to the top), but then again the material doesn't make all that much an effort to dig in deep and when so, its lazy and predictable. Some fascinating details are struck up --- like the background of the delusional father figure of the mountain men, but there's just too much grey there to satisfy. Some familiar faces fill the cast with Jack Starrett (suitably stone-cold as Father), Mitch Pileggi (playing a brute) and the always wonderful Dedee Pfeiffer. Todd Allen (Witchboard) and Charles Grant (Witchcraft) are durably fine as the Hayes' brothers. Also appearing is Dan Bell and Fred Olen Ray regular Jay Richardson.
