I will be quite honest, when David Michael Quiroz, Jr.–director of one of the most impressive titles I’d encountered in recent memory, Night of the Chihuahuas–wrote that he’d “tried my best to offer a competent alternative to the derivate slasher films littering the video shelves,” I rolled my eyes. I sighed a belated sigh of grief when his newest film, The Lonely Ones, opened with a set of coeds entering into the woods to spend the weekend in a cabin. I second-guessed my career move as a film critic once ghost stories begun to be exchanged as flashlights illuminated faces amid the storytelling. I paused, thinking the only aspect of the work that housed any pretense to fright was his lead actress, Devanny Pinn, only to be seconded by Luke (Ron Berg), whom I staunchly argue has a potential career as a double for Tom Green (but then again, who would want that job even if it was afforded him?).
However, admittedly, I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. Shortly after the director introduces his presumed antagonist, the Metalhead Maniac, I started to ponder what I had on my itinerary the following day as I offhandedly admired the strangely fascinating score by 33 Degree and Rebecca Bolam, chuckling to myself when a note was obviously missed half an hour into the film. Yet my attention span did an about-face when Vince Hayes’s (Jermaine McKinney) head is not severed or knocked off, but rather pulled from is roots in all its unrepentant glory. Intrigued, I rubbed my tired eyes and focused on the screen and I’m glad I did.
I did so just in the nick of time. The aforementioned tired, labored, not to mention trite and pathetically named antagonist then appears–not as a rote serial killer stalking evolutionarily-challenged kids stranded in the woods–but as a harbinger hunting the true villains. A red herring indeed. (Insert implied appreciation for the director’s expert knowledge of pacing in this respect.) I continued to watch, wondering if Quiroz would be content to offer only one moment of inspiration. Luckily, he didn’t disappoint in that he quickly follows up with a trio of ghouls, vampiric creatures which he wisely issues their own mythology (they, like Ridley Scott’s Alien, undergo developmental stages, as we are informed that one is a mere nymph) but ingeniously leaves somewhat ambiguous in order to allot them an air of mystery and thus threat. Having snagged his audience, Quiroz relentlessly continues compounding his narrative with surprises. For example, before the end of The Lonely Ones, the true leader of the ghouls (a surprise in and of itself played so nonchalantly as not to be a trick pony, my hat goes off it Quiroz) winds up in an ironic love tryst with one of the characters attempting to survive the night.
Quiroz humbly stated that he hopes that his obviously flawed film “hits more than it misses.” Indeed, having maliciously, yet intriguingly, set his viewer up, once the narrative roller coaster makes its gradual ascent up the mount, the remainder of his feature blows your hair back as Ben Juhl’s special effects are inspired and well implemented, rarely gratuitous, and–considering the budget–a miracle in and of themselves. Equally, if not a smidgeon more, admirable is Aaron Rottinghaus’s saintlike patience with the editing, which included obvious Herculean labors, not without positive results.
In all fairness, the film does suffer in some respects but the largest wound works to the film’s benefit in that Quiroz’s ensemble cast is too large to be aptly fleshed before the action ensues. However, this permits the film to house an air of suspense as a consequence in that we are unsure, much like George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, who will perish and who will survive. The only serious complaint is that the sound department, the largest collective on the picture, didn’t hold their weight as well as other working factions in that one moment the volume will be near deafening to be quickly followed by subvocal whispers from the cast.
David Michael Quiroz, Jr.’s The Lonely Ones is a welcome shot-in-the-dark from a very promising, devoted, up-and-coming filmmaker whom I can only demand of the powers that be, “Give this guy a budget.” I froth at the mouth at the prospect of his next work and hope that his directorial abilities are only usurped by his masterful screenwriting. In short, Carpenter, Romero, Gordon, and Craven need to watch their backs because Quiroz has already blown past Eli Roth and his ilk and is threatening to hitch a ride on the masters’ coattails. Mark my words, keep an eye on David Michael Quiroz, Jr., otherwise you won’t be able to pride yourself in having been “in the know” from the get-go.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
