(willamette week) Using a ’70s horror aesthetic, this flick takes us back to a time when handheld cameras and uneven audio were not only the norm but necessary in order to follow a haunted farm-dweller who escapes a violent relationship and goes on a dark odyssey through her soul—which looks uncannily like the forests of Oregon. Enigmatic clues about her mysterious “accident” are provided by roadside crones and campers who speak in riddles, and graphic intimations of mortality punctuate every odd encounter the Oregonian has with other (ostensibly living) souls as she flashes back to images of her own downfall. But tired tropes like symbolic rooms and cackling choirs of women derail any mystery the film succeeds in creating. Despite the quaint retro feel, it all comes off as clunky and poorly thought out; not so much an homage to the ’70s horror genre, but a contender for a film best left forgotten in that era.
