‘This road has no fairy tale ending’
YellowBrickRoad is a 2010 American horror film written and directed by Jesse Holland (The Crooked Man) and Andy Mitton (The Vermont House; We Go On; Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear). It has also been released as Vanished.
Main cast:
Cassidy Freeman (Fender Bender; The Vampire Diaries), Anessa Ramsey (Death Race 2050; Southbound; Rites of Spring), Laura Heisler, Clark Freeman, Lee Wilkof, Alex Draper, Tara Giordano, Michael Laurino, Sam Elmore.
Plot:
A film crew has traveled to the town of Friar, New Hampshire, to finally travel a trail known only via the horrific stories that surround it. In 1940 the entire town of Friar, 572 people, abandoned their town and walked into the wilderness with only the clothes on their back after a viewing of The Wizard of Oz, a film that the entire town was obsessed with.
No-one has ever been able to explain why they did this, especially since only 300 of the townspeople’s bodies were recovered. Of those 300, some had frozen to death in the elements while others were killed in horrific and bloody ways.
When the trail’s coordinates are declassified, crew leader Teddy gains access to the coveted information via Friar’s cinema. His goal is to finally answer the questions surrounding the disappearances and deaths, as well as what lies at the end of the trail…
Reviews:
“By building suspense through this combination of character, setting and story, Mitton, Holland and Hardwick focus on allowing audiences to easily lose themselves in the endless wilderness … The film’s cryptic, metaphoric ending will no doubt frustrate and confuse many viewers, and spark endless online debate. Even with this drawback, the movie is still quite engrossing, with some of the most unsettling scenes since The Exorcist and The Shining. It’s truly spooky.” Scott David, Meet in the Lobby
“The last half of the film really makes good use of music and sound to build effect and unsettle the viewer … The constant sound and scratching of the needle against the record really has an effect on the nerves and makes the silences deafening. This is a little more on the cerebral side of horror with a few moments of disturbing images, made all the more disturbing by their abrupt nature, this is a film well worth the watch.” The Geek Girl Project
” … the camera shakes, and they begin attacking each other, like that Star Trek episode where the Enterprise crew is infected by a virus and they all go nuts. But at least that had a shirtless Sulu sword fighting. Yellowbrickroad is without personality. It’s competently made, but the cast and direction are just bland.” G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
“If they go back and make a better ending … I could see this being a cult favorite of sorts … The unknown actors are pretty good, the story is interesting, and it has minor doses of unexpected humor (their reactions to a broken GPS are pretty hilarious). And again, it has a guy tearing someone’s leg off. So, worth a look.” Brian Collins, Horror Movie a Day
“YellowBrickRoad is a fresh original update of the backwoods horror film. It’s one that begs to be seen in a large theater, projected with terrific surround sound. Both Mitton and Holland are self professed fans of horror, and though this film begs to break the bounds of the genre I would certainly hope to see them return to horror to craft yet another original terrifying film.” Deaditor, Brutal as Hell
“Underwhelming finish explains zilch, but good perfs, atmospherics and use of backwoods locations make Yellowbrickroad an intriguing cipher.” Dennis Harvey, Variety
Cast and characters:
Cassidy Freeman as Erin Luger
Anessa Ramsey as Melissa Barnes
Laura Heisler as Liv McCann
Clark Freeman as Daryl Luger
Lee Wilkof as Clerk / Usher
Alex Draper as Walter Myrick
Tara Giordano as Jill
Michael Laurino as Teddy Barnes
Sam Elmore as Cy Banbridge
Filming Locations:
Lancaster, New Hampshire, USA
