I'LL TAKE YOUR DEAD (2018)

Studio:      Shout! Studios
Director:    Chad Archibald
Writer:      Jayme Laforest
Producer:  Cody Calahan, Chad Archibald, Christopher Giroux
Stars:     Aidan Devine, Ava Preston, Jess Salgueiro, Brandon McKnight, Michael Reventar, Ari Millen

Review Score:

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Summary:

A butcher who secretly disposes of dead bodies inadvertently puts his ghost-sensitive daughter in danger when his latest job turns out to still be alive.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Gangbangers Reggie, Diaz, and Demarco drop off the bodies of rival gang members Jackie, T-Dogg, and Bodie at the remote farm of William, who acquired the nickname ‘The Candy Butcher’ by using his facilities to secretly dispose of dead bodies. Reggie vaguely hints at harming William’s 12-year-old daughter Gloria, forcing William to reluctantly take the job.

That night, Gloria sees a vision of T-Dogg playing the piano as a ghost. While cutting up the bodies and dissolving their parts, William discovers Jackie is still alive.

William restrains Jackie to a bed. When Gloria objects to Jackie wearing her dead mother’s dress as well as being in their home, William explains that they have to help Jackie recover otherwise they are no better than the men who shot her.

Gloria experiences a frightening vision of a burnt man. Gloria tries telling her father that the ghosts of the bodies disposed there now haunt their home.

While William remains cautious with Jackie, Gloria befriends her when Jackie gives Gloria her earrings. William later overhears Gloria talking to a ghost about Jackie.

When William finds Jackie unconscious from blood loss, he tasks Gloria with retrieving his first aid kit from the basement. Gloria’s fear of the cellar causes her to hesitate, but she recovers the kit after encountering the burnt man again.

William revives Jackie by giving her his own blood. Gloria sees T-Dogg and Bodie’s ghosts observing from a corner of the room.

William explains to Jackie how she came to his farm. Jackie concernedly asks if her boyfriend Carter was among the dead bodies Reggie brought to him. William tells her he wasn’t.

Over milk and cookies, William and Gloria discuss their plan to abandon the farm and move to El Paso. William pauses when Gloria asks if Jackie can come with them.

William tells Jackie how he inadvertently ended up blackmailed into becoming ‘The Candy Butcher,’ but kept doing it to pay for his terminally ill wife’s medical expenses. William asks Jackie for her story, but she becomes brusque with William instead.

Gloria speaks to Bodie’s ghost before going to sleep. Gloria wakes that night to find she is bleeding. Frightened, Gloria goes to Jackie for help.

Jackie has Gloria retrieve her confiscated purse and dump its contents on the bed. Jackie explains that Gloria merely had her first period and gives Gloria a menstruation pad.

After Gloria exits, Jackie retrieves her cellphone. Jackie calls her boyfriend Carter, explains what happened, and asks Carter to rescue her from William’s farmhouse.

Jackie accidentally knocks the handgun from her purse onto the floor. Sudden gunfire rouses William. William learns about Gloria’s period before confiscating the contents of Jackie’s purse once again.

Carter confronts Reggie about Jackie still being alive. Carter expresses worry that his former gang leader will discover he turned traitor, faked his death, and set up his own crew to be executed if Jackie reports Carter is still alive too. Carter rallies Reggie, Diaz, and Demarco to go after Jackie.

Gloria convinces William to let Jackie join them for breakfast. When Gloria mentions moving to El Paso, William sends her to collect their suitcases. William tells Jackie his plan to sedate her while he and Gloria flee the farm. William explains that Jackie is free to go when she wakes up provided she doesn’t tell anyone about William or Gloria. Jackie agrees.

Carter, Reggie, Diaz, and Demarco arrive at the farm. Jackie realizes her boyfriend betrayed her when she sees him alongside the man who shot her. William realizes what Jackie did when Carter tries calling her cellphone.

William goes outside to confront the four gangsters. Reggie explains that they are only there to collect Jackie. William goes back into the house to retrieve her.

Blaming her for putting them in the situation to begin with, William brings Jackie outside with the intention of handing her over. Through tears, Gloria begs her father to reconsider.

William instructs Gloria to lock herself in the basement. Having a change of heart, William has Jackie take her handgun from his waistband. A shootout ensues as William and Jackie retreat inside the house.

Gunfire kills Demarco. Carter, Reggie, and Diaz break into the house in search of William, Jackie, and Gloria.

Diaz unexpectedly confronts several ghosts in the basement. William uses the opportunity to drown Diaz in a bathtub of acid.

Gloria confronts the burnt man again.

Jackie and Carter fight. T-Dogg’s ghost suddenly confronts Carter. Jackie uses the distraction to beat her boyfriend to death with a baseball bat.

Reggie captures Gloria at gunpoint, initiating a standoff with William. Reggie shoots William multiple times. Gloria screams for Reggie to stop.

Lights flicker and furniture shakes as the furnace begins blazing. Bodie’s ghost screams at Reggie, paranormally pushing him backward until Reggie becomes consumed by flames.

William sees ghosts including the burnt man. William intimates to Gloria that he will never leave her before dying from his wounds. Jackie comes downstairs to comfort Gloria.

Jackie and Gloria leave the farm in William’s truck with the money he collected for moving to El Paso. When Gloria looks back, she sees her father standing with the other ghosts on the farmhouse’s porch. William and Gloria wave at each other as Jackie drives away.

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Review:

Deadwood had Mister Wu. Criminals in a cold corner of Canada have ‘The Candy Butcher.’ He’s who gangsters go to when a dead body needs to disappear with no questions asked and no breadcrumbs left for police to find.

According to urban legend, The Candy Butcher acquired his nickname because to him, blood is sweet, and he has supposedly been bathing in it for years. Other whispers on the street believe the butcher eats bodies to make them vanish. Another rumor says someone once saw him sewing severed limbs together like some sort of Frankenstein’s Monster.

The truth isn’t nearly as sinister as the fiction. William ended up in the body disposal trade by incidental extortion. He remained there by financial necessity. In reality, he is an unassuming widower struggling to raise his 12-year-old daughter Gloria on an isolated farm whose best days are behind them.

William doesn’t want the new job of disappearing three bodies belonging to gangbanger Reggie’s rivals. But a vague threat in Gloria’s direction forces William’s hand. Once William gets on his gloves and gets down to work, Reggie becomes a secondary concern. William knows what to do with dead bodies. But when one of them turns out to still be alive, William finds himself facing a situation his two-person family isn’t prepared for.

Rarely are the names of Black Fawn Films or director Chad Archibald bandied about whenever there is a popular discussion about the contemporary indie horror landscape. Maybe they fly too far under most radars. Maybe they don’t receive comparable coverage in the United States as they might in their native Canada. Whatever the reason, fright film fans keeping them on the cusp are missing an intriguing creative progression from one production to the next.

You don’t have to enjoy each individual movie from Black Fawn Films, I certainly don’t, to appreciate what the company is doing. They’re not changing the game. They’re not shaking the Earth. Whether it’s the body horror of “Bite” (review here), the occult eeriness of “The Heretics” (review here), or the throwback thrills of “Bed of the Dead” (review here), Black Fawn and Chad Archibald simply produce consistently creepy pictures that look good, play well, and generally outpace average efforts released in the same space.

“I’ll Take Your Dead” represents Archibald and Black Fawn’s current peak of what their formula for high quality, low-budget genre fare can achieve. In accordance with their grounded approach, the film isn’t some senses-shattering epic built around high concept spectacle. “I’ll Take Your Dead” is only a rock solid suspense thriller with an engaging story, sharp execution, and satisfying entertainment value.

Its actors aren’t household names. Again, it doesn’t matter. “I’ll Take Your Dead” merely sets out to install qualified professionals on both sides of the camera regardless of résumé.

Jayme Laforest’s character-driven script calls for impassioned performances, even if they aren’t showy roles. Aidan Devine sets the tone with a dour demeanor that simultaneously suggests a fragile father figure who is as caring on the inside as he is callous on the outside. Ava Preston powers the other part of the movie’s emotional battery as Gloria. As a little girl made more mature by her mother’s death as well as the ability to see ghosts, Preston overdramatizes Gloria a smidge. Yet when it comes to child actors still learning how to adjust their knobs, I’ll take the lesser evil of pouring it on a touch thick to woodenly underperforming any day of the week.

Ari Millen of “Orphan Black” applies some theatrics of his own with the physical characteristics of loose cannon thug Reggie. Really though, Millen only appears to be relishing the villain role a pinch, which isn’t a sin. Other than one or two mustache-twirling teases, Millen, like the rest of the cast, breathes a third-dimension into the person on the page to create a captivating onscreen presence.

Even with a keen sense for keeping the film trim through cinematic camerawork and tight editing, nits are ripe for picking, particularly regarding the payoff. The supernatural hook melting into the movie isn’t truly essential aside from deus ex machina employment down the line. “I’ll Take Your Dead” also has the kind of conclusion where an interior location suddenly becomes improbably labyrinthine to recalibrate how remaining players are separated.

But the film’s relative straightforwardness doesn’t demand to be picked apart by a detailed analysis. It doesn’t demand a craftily worded review either. “I’ll Take Your Dead” is just a cool little crime drama whose direction doesn’t drive down an obvious road, which keeps intrigue high even when intensity may be low. Like the majority of Black Fawn Films’ output, “I’ll Take Your Dead” demonstrates that “worth watching” is preferable to “must see” as an appropriate accolade equal to the movie’s capable accomplishments as enjoyable genre entertainment.

Review Score: 80

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