WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
First, the Recap:
Not many would desire to find themselves within the mind of a murderer. Highly disturbed patterns of reasoning, violent, volatile notions spinning wildly out of control, all so often hidden beneath an eerily calm exterior. What possesses those who commit atrocious acts to perpetrate them in the first place? Furthermore, would we actually want to know the answer? In a car filled with random banter as partners will do, Detective Sarah Carver (Amanda Shafer) and her newly appointed trainee Detective James Brillant (Paul Cottman) motor their way towards a specific destination, intent on doing what they do best–ask questions in order to determine needed answers. Little do they know, the quarry they seek is preparing as well.
Turning into the driveway of a relatively isolated home, their knock on the door reveals one Darcell Kerry (Dallas White), who seems–hesitant yet somehow strangely comfortable with the Detectives’ appearance at his home. Upon a sudden flurry of images that flash in Darcell’s mind, he invites them in where Carver and Brillant begin their questioning about a recent local event. Even as the moments unfold, Carver becomes increasingly suspicious about their host, even as his own demeanor beings to hint at less than amicable intentions. As events take a sudden, harrowing turn for the worse, it becomes vividly apparent that the creepily amiable and accommodating Darcell has his own twisted agendas in play.
Next, my Mind:
It is a solidly truthful statement to say, in general at least, that films (short or feature) which cover the overall concept of dastardly individuals and their equally dastardly deeds is more than common, perhaps even overdone to some extents. Therefore, one has to look at the total execution of any said effort to try and ascertain whether it sticks out enough to be considered worthwhile. For writer/director/executive producer/cinematographer Daniel Wyland, it is by putting the typical, albeit warped, ideas about the thought processes and associated misdeeds of a decidedly unstable person on display, but then infusing it with a very haunting social message to explain said attitudes and actions, that gives this film its edge and overtly freakish tone.
Now, this stated, there was a sense of deep menace that needed to be present to make this all work, and while this is accomplished in parts, other points of dialogue delivery especially felt a bit forced, just lacking that all-encompassing sense of sincere dread and terror. But, as stated above, it’s the broader scope of what’s being communicated here that buoys the greater whole and really saves the film from sinking into what could have been mild cliché. Solid visual presentation aides the effort, visceral and effectively sinister, providing suitably unnerving images for the viewer to chew on in their mind. An apropos music score also helps create the mood here as well. It’s a film of certain moments that hit, others that do not, but where the sum total is very well done.
White milks every bit of screen time he receives in playing the role of Darcell, a seriously maladjusted man with an unhinged agenda he is carrying out all for the benefit of an even more malevolent endgame that points an accusing finger at what he feels created him and allows him to do what he does. His relaxed yet spooky manner enhances the dark methods by which he chooses to carry out his plans, and watching White embody this while emoting so well is entertaining and unsettling at the same time. Some of it felt a bit overplayed, but I fully understand what White was going for. I actually cannot imagine what it takes to “go there” when enacting such nasty individuals and White does nail it.
Supporting turns arrive from Shafer and Cottman as the ill-fated Detectives Carver and Brillant, two by-the-books law officers only trying to delve deeper into a hit-and-run incident and any who might have seen or heard anything. The fact they happen to end up at Darcell’s home first is a cruel twist of “luck”, and by the time either one of them realizes they’re in a severely ominous situation, it’s too late. Both Shafer and Cottman imbue the Detectives with a solid sense of purposeful intent and subsequent horror as they realize the gravity of their situation. The characters are pretty straightforward, but given just enough material to help them rise above what, again, could have been merely average.
A final appearance is made by Sonya Wyland, who plays a seriously key role that puts the entire affair into the distorted perspective initiated in the film’s potent finale. In total, “17 Locust St.” isn’t necessarily the best overall film of this nature I’ve seen, but it is more than worth considering and not ignoring to take in its grand concept and, as mentioned above, statement about our society, the challenging message it puts forth about the creation of monsters, and the lessons potentially put upon even our youth because of it, more so since this would seem to establish that learning can truly be….a killer.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
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