Lightning Bug (2004)
Starring: Bret Harrison, Laura Prepon, Kevin Gage
Writer: Robert Hall
Director: Robert Hall
Synopsis:
The down on their luck Graves family --Momma Jenny, Green and Jay-- relocate from Detroit to a small country town in Alabama. Years go by. Jay turns to God, Green turns to Horror movie makeup and a pass time of catching lightning bugs with his friends. The mother remarries to a guy named Earl. She takes to heavy drinking and nightly fights with her husband, and Green finds friendship in Angevin, a girl that works at the local video store. He also talks the old man that runs the annual Halloween haunted house into letting him run the show, after being rejected the year before. But the town is crazy religious, and thinks that Green and his trade is the work of Satan. Furthermore, Earl starts to show his true colors as the story progresses, and he may be more of a monster than anything that Green can make through special effects.
Rant:
I remember reading about Lightning Bug on horror sites before its release and being crazy excited about it. By the time it made it to DVD, I had done up and forgotten about it. Just too many movies. Luckily when I was looking for films to review for Halloween, Tromeric from Guts and Grog made mention of it and the light bulb came back on. Much to my surprise, it was Robert Hall's debut film. That excited me, being a big fan of Laid to Rest and its sequel. Apparently, Lightning Bug is a fictionalized account of Hall's life just prior to him becoming an SFX guy. Well, this film is incredibly well written and acted, way more than the more straight forward ChromeSkull stories. I kinda think it's wrongfully categorized as horror, too. It's drama more than anything, and there is a ton of fucking heartache in the story, folks. While it may be altered to an extent, you can tell Hall put a lot of heart into the narrative, and I give a huge amount of praise to him for that.
From a visual standpoint, there is a similar feel to the Laid to Rest films. Overall, the movie looks really clean and shot with precision, but it's pretty straight forward. Towards the beginning of the film, Jenny Graves (Ashley Laurence from Hellraiser) assures her two young sons Green (Bret Harrison) and Jay (Lucas Till) that their stay in this podunk town is only temporary. The next shot is Green on the lawn of their single wide trailer waiting for the school bus. The bus stops to pick him up, when it takes off, a considerable amount of time has passed, and he's being dropped off back home as a late teenager. It's a fucking fantastic sequence, and really sets the stage for how hopeless and tragic this family's life is. There's some other cool moments, such as Green and his backwoods buddies watching a horror film on TV that clearly coincides with what they are talking about during the scene. The simple stuff like that really won me over in this film.
Green Graves is such a heartfelt character, and Bret Harrison puts a ton of emotion into the role. He's very convincing as a young adult with the worries of his mother having a down right rotten husband. He seems truly genuine in his portrayal of an aspiring SFX artist, too. Furthermore, the love at first sight chemistry between Harrison and Laura Prepon as Angevin is spot on. Angevin is an outcast in this town, much like Green. They don't belong, and hit it off due to their love for horror films. I love Prepon; she's extremely hot all gothed out. There's a lot of sorrow in Angevin, too. ****spoilers→She has a troubled past from running away, and a fanatically religious mother that carries around a pillow in the role of her husband. It's fucking nuts←spoilers****. I have to give a ton of credit to Kevin Gage as Earl/Bones, the new step dad. The character is one of the most hataeble, psychotic, abusive drunken piece of shit rednecks in recent memory. It's a different persona from Gage's role in Laid to Rest, and he fucking kills in the shoes of this asshole. You hate him more an more with every word that comes out of his mouth. Ashely Laurence as the mother does great too, with pulling off the emotions and appearance of a lady that is severely worn out and dissatisfied with where life has taken her.
More minor roles: Lucas Till is great as the little brother that turns to church to forget about the family's worries. Hal Sparks makes for one hell of an asshole local sheriff. Bob Penny plays the older fellow who runs the yearly Halloween spook house and understands how ass backwards this shit town is. Green's two friends --the potentially inbred Billy Martin and the big teddy bear Tony Bennett-- are played perfectly by George Faughnan and Jonathan Spencer. Lastly, Shannon Eubanks as Angevin's psycho God fearing mother. Almost as easy to dislike as Earl, so kudos to Eubanks for being a wonderfully freakish bitch. The scene of her singing gospel songs in her car really sell the performance.
As mentioned, the movie does play out more as a drama than horror, but there is still some SFX work, and Robert Hall dabbled in a bit of it. Some of the props and models used that's made to look like Green's work is fucking incredible, as is the Halloween spook show house. ****spoilers→There's a nasty sequence of someone being thrown out of a speeding car, and a brutal punch through a window that results in a forearm slice that fountains out blood. It's fuckin' rough←spoilers****. For visual effects, there's lightning bugs. They don't look real, but they have an importance in the film.
The soundtrack has songs by Suicidal Tendencies, Drvin' 'N' Cryin' and King's X. Then there's some depressing acoustic-like stuff that plays while Green is walking around thinkin' about stuff. It works.
Lightning Bug is a great fucking movie. It really took me by surprise. As much as I enjoy the Laid to Rest films on a more mindless enjoyable level, I must say that this is Robert Hall's best work. I'd definitely like to see him do something else in the same vein after he finishes up with ChromeSkull.
****spoilers in slides****
