BRIGHTWOOD (2022)

New On Demand and digital download from Cinephobia Releasing!
Directed/Written by Dane Elcar.
Starring Dana Berger, Max Woertendyke

A couple on the edge of divorce (played by Dana Berger and Max Moertendyke) bucker through a morning run only to find themselves in a time loop they can’t get out of surrounding a lake called Brightwood.

BRIGHTWOOD feels like a lost TWILIGHT ZONE episode. I miss movies like this, where weird shit happens and no time is wasted investigating why. The couple who find themselves in this time loop aren’t scientists or physics majors. They’re just a normal couple with normal couple problems. There isn’t some big revelation where we find out why the couple is in this loop, it just happens and the fun is seeing these normal people react to this very abnormal situation.

Most likely conceptualized and made during the pandemic, the film stars only two people as they run this endless lap around the lake. Most likely, the film is inspired by couples who were forced to cohabitate for an extended amount of time such as the length of the pandemic, and all of the uncomfortable horrors that come from it. Both Dana Berger and Max Moertendyke are strong actors, supporting every twist and turn they uncover with fun banter, barbed criticisms of one another, and quirky humor. For example, once they’ve made it around the lake, the couple encounter another version of themselves just beginning their run and the biggest take away Moertendyke has is that he didn’t know how bad his male pattern baldness has become. It’s moments like this that really work in making this couple, who spend the entire time arguing with one another in the opening fifteen minutes, into likable, identifiable characters. Both actors are strong enough to make this concept work, even as the perspective shifts from one pairing of the couple to another.

Most of the time, time travel and multiple universe crap makes my eyes glaze over. Many films get too caught up in the rules and the physics minutiae. Not so for BRIGHTWOOD. This is ground level sci fi horror, done on a scale that never exceeds their budget. Director and writer Dane Elcar really has achieved something special with this film. I love the depths the story goes in terms of what these two desperate people will do to themselves and each other in order to find a way out of this endless loop. I highly recommend this little sci fi horror movie that works big time!

Check out the trailer here!!