REVIEW - BLACK ROCK

Passable on the grounds of its status as a micro-budget experiment, Black Rock is a product of the Duplass brothers oeuvre, which has seen them taken on roles of directors, actors, producers and writers. Unlike their other material, this is a thriller, and its formulaic concept - people on a remote island, mishap turns into catastrophe, violence ensues - seems to fulfill only a curiosity of what a 'Mumblecore'-slasher / thriller might look like. But its adherence to formula is too heavy, and almost all hints of uniqueness which might have osmosed into the scenario have been extinguished. Indeed, Katie Aselton's film even hews to contemporary traditions in the genre, like the breezily calm but mildly foreboding earlier scenes which then subside suddenly to bursts of tension and terror; a convention invented to waylay expectations and increase the impact of the inevitable violence, it has become too commonplace to use with both sincerity and integrity, but is not yet commonplace enough to be an excusable facet of a film such as this, which does make some noted efforts to gain credibility. Until a hoary, botched climactic bout of unconvincing luridness, the gore is used cautiously, and some refreshingly natural, unerotic nudity illuminates Aselton and Duplass' admirable intentions, but there's such a nagging lack of creativity in the scenarios played out here, and often an amateurishness in their execution - the dialogue takes some clunky turns, and there are some seriously ropey performances from the small cast, not to mention comical makeup effects and a finale of glaring inadequacy in regard to staging violence with any plausibility. An anti-militaristic bent does appeal to this reviewer, though.