SLIFF 2017 Review – COYOTES KILL FOR FUN

Blake Eckard’s COYOTES KILL FOR FUN screens Saturday, November 4th at 7:00pm at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis) as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found HERE.

In “Coyotes Kill for Fun,” the latest from Northwest Missouri indie filmmaker and SLIFF favorite Blake Eckard, a backwoods babysitter agrees to help an abused mother of two escape her lunatic boyfriend, but his psychotic brother is headed back to the area, and he has a fraught history with everyone involved. Filmed over three years in Missouri, Montana, and LA, “Coyotes” had a long gestation: Two-thirds was first shot back in March 2014, and a trio of cinematographers — Eckard, St. Louisan Cody Stokes, and American-indie legend Jon Jost — passed the baton behind the camera. Despite the prolonged production, “Coyotes” maintains a totally consistent — and utterly original — vision. The film features such Eckard regulars as Tyler Messner, Frank Mosley, Roxanne Rogers, and Arianne Martin. Gary Topp, co-founder of the distribution company Films We Like and a devoted supporter of Eckard’s work, writes of “Coyotes”: “I think it is his most accomplished to date; skilled, intriguing and provoking, with authentic performances and some phenomenal staging. It also has a palpable atmosphere of danger that hangs on; I recalled the original ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre.’ But ‘Coyotes’ stands alone. (Blake’s) films can’t be confused with anyone else’s, and I can’t believe he’s still an untapped talent.” SLIFF also screens Eckard’s second film, 2006’s “Backroad Blues,” which makes its belated Missouri debut.

Review of COYOTES KILL FOR FUN by Dane Marti

Directed by Blake Eckard, I was deeply impressed with the cinematic command of this film, but I definitely do not want to give too much away…it’s best to experience it without too much explanation—instead, I will give a few impressions, I dare not lessen the subtle impact of the film. After a number of years of writing reviews of Independent Films, this is one of the most surprising, one of the most haunting films I’ve reviewed. Perhaps it isn’t perfect, but given what I believe to be the Director’s fantastic vision, and taking into consideration the fact that it’s an Indie film, I found it sublime.

“I don’t kill for fun,” says a bloody, injured character near the start, as he stands in a desolate landscape-a dead corpse near him. Everyone drinks beer in this film and that’s not surprising: They live grim lives. They have horrible memories, they have survived terrible, terrible experiences. This film isn’t a comedy, but it isn’t a traditional horror film either. The acting is dexterous. Everyone completely inhabits their characters. I certainly don’t know how much theatrical background they have or if they are truly ‘rural’ people, but they certainly act as if they have lived grueling lives.    Easily, the women and children in the film have had the worst experiences. They live Tragic, sad lives: the men are abusive, psychotic and filled with masculine aggression. Some are simply stupid…some are evil. Children try valiantly to run and hide from the evil, but it’s futile, considering how oppressive the landscape is for anyone helpless and in need of love. Love is in short supply in this film. Nightmares warmly saturate the film with impending death; hope is in short supply. This is an Independent film that should be experienced—it’s hard as hell to look away.

Now, technically, although the film doesn’t seem to have a elephantine budget, it is photographed and directed with real panache; the compositions remind me of the work of painter Andrew Wyeth. Rusted barns, branches and fields tenaciously hold hidden secrets. The camera slowly moves like an unseen character, a character who wishes they were somewhere else but cannot stop looking, taking in the ever-growing foul experience. This is an intense film. It was as if one of the supremely grotesque characters was calmly holding a shotgun to my head, a malevolent expression on his scarred visage, daring me to stop watching the appalling and execrable story. Along with the superlative acting, and pitch-perfect method-style performances, the music adds to the overall oppressive atmosphere; it is perfectly wedded to the film! This is a beautiful, horrendous, sad and haunting film:  Rural Noir.