RATTLESNAKE
US, 2019, 85 minutes, Colour.
Carmen Ejogo, Theo Rossi, Emma Greenwell, Apollonia Pratt, Bruce Davis.
Directed by Zak Hilditch
Writer-director, Zak Hilditch, made a number of short films and features in Australia, especially Their Final Hours. He then moved to the United States and directed the adaptation of the Stephen King story, 1922. This film has the touches of Stephen King style drama and horror and is set in Texas.
For those who want an interesting drama, not pounding with action (until the end) will find it a story of a mother and daughter, travelling from Arizona to Oklahoma, passing through Texas, wide open landscapes, a flat tyre, the little daughter playing on the fields and bitten by rattlesnake.
While there is a realistic atmosphere to the whole story, something of the supernatural enters in when a mysterious trailer appears and a woman heals her little daughter. The mother is bewildered, takes her daughterout of the hospital.
She puzzles over the appearance of the trailer, then encounters a number of dead people who warn her that she must provide a death before sunset, a soul for a soul. Bewildered, she investigates the murders in the town and discovers something of who the dead people are. She is confronted by several more. An opportunity arises in the hospital where she might kill a man who is dying but he dies before she has the occasion. Drinking at a bar, she confronts a battered wife and a violent husband. She follows them home. She buys a gun and bullets, practising with the help of a You- Tube instruction video.
The final part of the film, as sunset nears, is her abducting the husband, intending to kill him in the mountains, the struggle between them – and, dramatic compensation, he is bitten by rattlesnake.
Bloggers were not as enthusiastic about the film as they might have been. But, it is an interesting plot, the supernatural element, a reasonable entertainment drama.
1. The title? The symbols during the credits? The snake in the desert, biting Clara? And the final snake? Biting Billy?
2. The action taking place over one day, sunrise to sunset? The Texas desert, the open plains, the final mountain scenery? The town, the streets, the bar, the hospital, the suburbs? The musical score?
3. The realism of the plot? The drive, mother and daughter, interactions, Clara’s age? The single mother? The driving, listening to Tony Robbins’ pep talk, sleepy? The puncture? Clara playing? The snakebite?
4. The introduction of the surreal, the caravan, Katrina carrying Clara, the woman in the caravan, the meal cooking, the welcome, the woman healing Clara, Katrina changing the tyre, the return? Clara better?
5. Going to the hospital, Katrina and her incoherence, Clara being well, staying at the hospital?
6. Katrina in the town, wandering, the encounter with the lawyer, his threats, the sunset the limit, a soul for a soul? Katrina and her bewilderment? The going back out to the site of the puncture, the tire? The truck driver and the reminder of sunset? The further reminders – the young boy on the bike, breaking the car window? The priest, the flames, the church in flames? The photographer out in the mountains?
7. Katrina taking the warning seriously, the continual reminder of the time? The research into the deaths in the area? Identifying those she saw? The woman with the dying father, Katrina apologising, having a coffee, sitting vigil, the possibility of killing the old man, in the bathroom, his dying? Her having the drinks? Billy and his abuse of Abbie? Katrina following them, their home, noting the address?
8. Katrina, by the gun, the sympathetic gun seller because troubles on the road and the decline of America? His referring her to Earl? The gun, the conversation, his wife, extra money for the bullets? The using the You Tube on her phone to instruct her in shooting, the practice?
9. Returning to Billy and Abbie, looking into the house, the shower, the punishment, Abbie holding the weights, Billy and the TV? Katrina’s entry, saving Abbie, forcing Billy into the car, the drive, his argument, pleas, the gun, his escape, Katrina pursuing him, the sun going down, the photographer and her warning? The fight with Billy, his fall, bitten by the rattlesnake, his plea, Katrina descending, her initial depression and attempting to cut her throat, cutting Billy’s throat?
10. The phone call, Clara well, the reassurance of the hospital staff? Driving, chatting with Clara, the ghost of Billy in the desert, stopping at the state border?
