Rosewood Lane (Victor Salva) [Archive]

Rowland

09-28-2012, 05:31 AM

Holy crap, is Salva aware of just how nakedly confessional this is? Just as with his Jeepers Creepers films (particularly the underrated sequel), this self-proclaimed pet project of his is a veritable minefield of barely suppressed (or repressed?) subtext that is ripe for armchair psychoanalysis, uncannily suggestive of his past transgressions in a manner that is deeply fascinating.

Taken at face value however, this is a mediocre thriller that fails to thrill in large part because of how absurdly unconvincing (or at least ineffectually wrought) is its very premise, concerning a sort of demonic, omnipresent paperboy wrecking havoc upon a PTSD-suffering Rose McGowan (whose face is beginning to resemble that of Mickey Rourke).

On the positive side, while its formal attributes are lacking polish (likely due to budgetary constraints), they are still almost as solid as one would expect from Salva, especially when considered by the standards of low-budget horror, and this still exudes enough of those same eccentric sensibilities that so queasily infused his Jeepers Creepers films as to remain consistently involving.

transmogrifier

09-28-2012, 05:49 AM

I've realized Rowland has become kind of my surrogate for sturdy B-grade genre pictures, which I have a lot of time for when done well, but which seldom are. For a few months now, I've basically been noting the films that he likes and writing off the ones that he doesn't. I don't always end up agreeing with him, but it saves me a lot of work.

Keep it up!