“That was the worst movie I have ever seen.” I overheard an older woman deliver this verdict at the end of the film Surveillance as attendees at the Philadelphia Film Festival and cinefest 2009 rushed out of the theater to their next films. I am not surprised by her pronouncement, but I do not know what she expected. Did anyone think that director and co-writer Jennifer Chambers Lynch‘s first film in fifteen years  (she directed and wrote the screenplay for the controversial Boxing Helena in 1993) could be anything other than a dark and creepy offering? After all, it may be in her bloodline.  Lynch’s father, writer/director David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Eraserhead) was Surveillance’s  executive producer. As the rest of the final credits rolled, my film festival companion and I stared at our ballots and discussed our ratings. We agreed that if the category is dark and creepy films, Surveillance is excellent. I gave it a four (out of a possible five). That evening I had a nightmare in which all of the actors in the film came into my bedroom and pointed guns at me, so perhaps it deserved a five.

The film opens with flashes of a brutal attack interspersed with the opening credits. The scene then shifts to the local police station, as FBI agents Elizabeth Anderson (Julia Ormond) and Sam Hallaway ( Bill Pullman) arrive to interrogate three surviving witnesses to the latest murders.  It appears that serial killers are on the loose in this rural area, where the roads all seem to be bleak and deserted and the people all seem to be just a little bit weird.  The witnesses, a police officer Jack Bennet (Kent Harper, also the film’s co-writer), a little girl named Stephanie (Ryan Simkins) and attractive junkie Bobbi (Pell James) tell their stories and the audience gets to see in flashbacks what really happened and who these witnesses really are.  Everyone is hiding something and it soon becomes difficult to tell the good guys from the bad guys.  What does become clear it that all of the victims and the three surviving witnesses encountered each other in dramatic and traumatic ways even before the killers showed up.

Julia Ormond and Bill Pullman are perfect as by the book FBI agents whose furtive and playful glances at each other suggest a shared mysterious past.  They seem close to solving the case and uncovering other secrets as Agent Anderson bonds with little Stephanie after giving her crayons and paper to draw her experience and Agent Hallaway videotapes and coolly interrogates the other witnesses. In contrast to the FBI agents, the cops in this town are the opposite of by the book. French Stewart is both hilarious and terrifying in the flashback scenes as Officer Conrad, who along with his partner, Jack Bennet, take turns pretending to be the “good cop” and explaining that their partner is mentally unbalanced. These officers get their kicks from terrorizing civilians with their guns and badges, and French Stewart and Kent Harper play these scenes with gusto,  cheering each other on as they shoot the tires of passing motorists, and then threatening these motorists with violence, making  them promise to “drive fifty five” and then kissing them.  In a delicious twist on the common parental adage, “if you are ever in trouble, find a policeman,” Ryan Simkins is charming as the innocent and sincere Stephanie, approaching this dubious duo for help minutes after they finish terrorizing her parents. “I know what blood looks like,” she tells them.  We soon find out that this little girl knows many things.

This film sustains a high level of tension from the brutal opening to the end credits.  While the graphic violence and psychological cruelty are disturbing in many ways, the final scenes contain a twist that left the audience gasping.  It is the type of twist that I like; you do not see it coming, yet it makes sense. While this film is creepy, dark and funny, I would expect nothing less from a Lynch. Surveillance is currently making the rounds at film festivals (and some horror film festivals) in the United States, but it is scheduled for a limited release in June. 

Surveillance. Directed by Jennifer Chambers Lynch. With Julia Ormond (Elizabeth Anderson), Bill Pullman (Sam Hallaway), French Stewart (Jim Conrad), Kent Harper (Jack Bennet), Ryan Simpkins (Stephanie) and Pell James (Bobbi).   Magnolia Pictures, 2008.

 

Gail sees a movie appears every Wednesday.

 

Tweet  Print This Post

Tags: Gail sees a movie, movies // Add Comment »