Reviewed by Kevin Scott, MoreHprror.com
Ghost stories based on urban legend or rural folklore rarely transfer well to film. Oddly enough it seems that there is a more powerful delivery in the written or spoken word without the visuals. It’s refreshing when someone gets it right. Set against the backdrop of picturesque rural Kentucky, “Last Kind Words” works at spinning a tale of the sins of the past coming back to haunt the next generation.
A teenager named Eli and his parents move to an isolated farm to take on laborer jobs. His family life is a dysfunctional cocktail of alcoholism and rage on his father’s part, and complacency and submission on his mother’s.
When things look the bleakest, he meets Amanda at the outskirts of the farm. She’s a beautiful girl about his age that seems like his saving grace. He even loses interest in Katie, a potential friend with benefits from his old neighborhood when she comes to visit with an invitation to leave with her. Amanda gives him a cryptic warning about not crossing a ramshackle fence in the woods, and the farm owner warns him to stay away from her. It culminates when he does cross the fence, only to find a strung up and decomposed body. What transpires after that exposes everyone’s emotional vulnerability in both the living and the dead, and resurrects lies that have yet to be atoned for.
This film has an extremely well written and thought out story, and the cast has some familiar faces whose skills are utilized quite well in conveying how living with secrets and emotions untapped can wither one away. Marianne Hagan from “Halloween 6” almost has a Sissy Spacek quality as a wilted southern flower, and Brad Dourif gets a reprieve from his usual intensity (for a little while anyway) as the farm owner that seems to be the most stable one of the bunch, but has his own problems without easy solutions.
Last Kind Words succeeds in being one of those important first films that puts the love of horror deep in our bones, and we can remember as being absolutely terrifying even if the scares are far more subtle. It is almost bloodless, but deals with some pretty heavy issues such as domestic violence and teen suicide. A nice surprise and a definite recommend.