New on Bluray/DVD from Four Eighteen Films and Cleopatra Entertainment!

THE LONG DARK TRAIL (2022)

Directed/written by Kevin Ignatius, Nick Psinakis.
Starring Trina Campbell, Brady O’Donnell, Carter O’Donnell, Nick Psinakis, Michael Thyer

A pair of brothers run away from their abusive father to track down their mother who left the family to be a member of a cult. The film is segmented into short chapters, depicting the brothers’ arduous trek through a thick forest along a…well, a long dark trail.

While the story is very light—it’s basically just a couple of kids walking and riding their bikes through the woods with a few nightmare sequences tossed throughout sporadically, and the acting is very amateur, THE LONG DARK TRAIL never really bored me. I think this is mainly because of the truly effective score that dominates the entire film. While at times the tone is over-dramatic, it’s pretty amazing how much the accompanying music elevates the material, giving scenes gravitas and power that almost overrides the film’s low budget trappings. I know that saying the best part of the film is the music is not a ringing recommendation, but it does nevertheless.

THE LONG DARK TRAIL, for the most part, is an extremely simple concept and executed in a very rudimentary way. There is some surprisingly effective gore towards the end and a few shocking scenes of nightmare and hallucination as the kids take the long dark trail. All in all, THE LONG DARK TRAIL’s intentions are good, but the final product just isn’t great, but still, that score, using natural and unnatural sounds and beats, makes up for these issues quite a lot.

Check out the trailer here!!