LEGEND OF THE HILLBILLY BUTCHER

You can't help but feel sorry for the good people of the Southern states of the US. They're so often maligned in film and TV; when receiving a title like Legend of the Hillbilly Butcher, you do find yourself assuming that you're about to see a film of a certain kind, probably filled with the good ol' horror stereotypes we all know and love. Well, in this case, although there is a certain amount of those, this is still a film which surprised me. Its tone and atmosphere are miles away from the gore-fest I was anticipating.

It all starts in a standard enough way, though: we see a grandpaw telling his grandchildren stories of the 'hillbilly butcher', one Carl Henry Jessup. Son of a butcher, Jessup is a local legend who's living still, and local folks know to stay away from his property, seeing as rumours of 'long pig' sneaking its way into the local diet have dogged him for years. Jessup (Paul E. Respass) mainly keeps himself to himself, it seems, unless his freezer needs refilling: far from being completely isolated, though, he sees friends, and has a relative of his, Rae Lynn, comes around to keep house for him.

The film takes an unexpected turn when our butcher decides that he misses his ma and pa so much that he's going to use a ritual to sell his soul to Old Scratch, in order to secure their return. It takes a while before it's in any way clear whether this has kicked off any occult goings-on, but regardless, it's his relationship to his kin which really drives the rest of the film......

Although, that said, this is a film very light on plot developments. Not a great deal happens for, well, most of the time. Carl and his buddy sit around drinking 'shine, or he and Rae Lynn sit around eating dinner. The cannibalism is played out in a low key way, and any expectations of lots and lots of grisly killings are not fulfilled whatsoever. Instead, Legend of the Hillbilly Butcher is an experiment in atmosphere which is, by and large, fairly effective. Although in some respects the film is frustrating, it looks interesting and certainly does something different with the tried-and-tested idea of a dangerous loner luring visiting teens to his shack 'for dinner'. If it reminds me of anything, then Joaquin Montalvan's film has some aspects in common with Jim Van Bebber's Manson Family. It spends a lot more time getting into the mind of our main guy – and showing us, via flashbacks and surreal scenes, what makes up his back story.

Actor Respass (sadly recently deceased) has bucketloads of charm in this role; in a way, it's a shame he doesn't have more to do in a more conventional sense, and the use of voiceover for much of what he says/thinks reduces the amount of time he spends interacting with other cast members, which he does very well indeed. Likewise, his relative Rae Lynn (the gorgeous Theresa Holly, who nonetheless needs to proof read her biog on IMDb as she describes herself as having 'a quirky frame and curvy personality') plays her role charismatically, working very well with Respass. The film has been given that 'grindhouse' retro look seemingly by filming the entire thing through an Instagram filter, but it actually works fairly well, achieving more of a retro look than a lot of big-bucks studio attempts. And, as for the bad murders themselves (as there are a few), the gore is not in abundance but what there is looks pretty good, with some very neat prosthetics along the way.

So, Legend of the Hillbilly Butcher is a strange beast, but it's compelling in its way and exercises some ambition, something which is lacking from a lot of low-budget horror. Essentially, although it may wind up with the wrong audience if people are, like me, expecting masses of blood and guts, it surpasses that and it deserves credit for doing so.

This Whacked Movies presentation contains extras in the form of a Making Of documentary, a short film (Straight Razor), an interview with cast & crew and a selection of trailers.

Review by Keri O’Shea