Director – Joe Lujan (The Immortal Wars, Atelophobia)
Starring – Corey Taylor (Heidi, The Summoning), Taylor Kilgore (Drug Z, Immortal Legends), and Morlon Greenwood (TNA Impact Wrestling, Rust 2)
Release Date – 2015
Rating – 2.5/5
Tagline – “Prepare to meet evil himself”
I spent the better part of a week taking a break away from horror before making the return to my beloved genre. After watching When a Stranger Calls I decided to venture back into my realm of horror and toss in a few indie productions. Several weeks back Wild Eye sent me some gems to review and among them was the 2015 film Rust from director Joe Lujan. I shared an image on social media and a few days later the director reached out to me to review a few of his films. He was kind enough to send me a blu with his first two Rust films on it. Thank you Wild Eye and Joe Lujan for sending those my way!
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows a group of twenty-somethings that meet up at an old haunted attraction for a night of fun. What they don’t know is that the abandoned attraction is now home to a demented serial killer with a taste for torture. **Spoiler Alert*8
I’ll be completely honest with the few of you that read my reviews. I was excited to check this one out. The artwork for Wild Eyes release, along as the blu sent my way by Joe, really peaked my interests. I wasn’t expecting a life changing experience but I was hoping for a bloody good time.
The acting in this one is so so. Some of the cast really gets into their roles while others were a little underwhelming. The characters were painfully cliched but fun for the film. Honestly, none of the cast stands out but given the way the film was written I’m sure they were only acting as their scenes were written.
The story for this one has some fun moments but a lot of build up and even more repetitiveness. The abandoned haunted attraction was a bit of a turn off for me but once the film picked up I found myself enjoying it more than I thought I would. However, the movie does plateau fairly early and the torture scenes just take forever to watch. This film does not use it’s time wisely.
Finally, if you like dark films with brooding atmosphere this one is for you. We get effects that fit the film and plenty of torture. I know some of you will be turned off by this but fans of extreme horror and torture porn will enjoy this one. Overall, Rust has some moments and is worth a watch but this is one I doubt I will toss back in again anytime soon. The story could have been so much more but what we are given is a flick that recycles itself through the 30 plus minutes of run time.
