Death on Scenic Drives focuses on Larissa’s storyline (played by Stephanie Ash) and is set with her staying in the house of a family that has gone on vacation with a dog accompanying her. With the family dog out with her, Larissa tries and goes ahead to get settled. All goes well at first but then starts to get pretty strange, with eerie noises and vibrations of heavy objects being dropped that give rise to concern. No matter how wild it got, she never budged from her work post and performed her day-to-day chores. Not only that, but things start to happen to Larissa as well. She eats the family dog and gets onto a killing rampage that includes Dallas (Ry Barrett), the neighbor, and the family that lived there. The synopsis says She undergoes an eerie transformation of her being into DEATH itself. There was a point when some man with undue beard in badly fitted dark cloth started causing a disturbance in the area.
Is Death responsible for changing Larissa into Death? Or is he something different altogether? And did I mention that Larissa goes on a killing spree? That is pretty much the end of that film. Well, there is also a very short clip at the end where one of the daughters of the family members who survived the slaughter is holding a knife, and a priest is driving off with her and her sister. So is she now possessed by Death? And what will be the fate of Larissa? That is something we will never know.
I don’t always read the synopsis of a film before watching it, particularly if it is an indie film, because sometimes the end result is not what you anticipated. But I did read the synopsis of this film, “Death on Scenic Drive.” And in the end, I felt that the film needed to be something more, which is the impression that I got from watching the film.
The Good The first 40 or so minutes of this 75-minute wonder of horror known as “Death on Scenic Drive” is disbelief definitely the slowest portion of the movie. But it is in the later moments that will hook you on as possession takes control of Larissa. Then it just turns into an insane ride from then on. While the body count isn’t high, it’s what she does that left me in disbelief and she certainly does! Finally, and this is something I do not usually comment on, but in this case, I can let it slide. But the cinematography is crazy! There are so many indie films that I wish looked as good as this one. And Scott McIntyre deserves all the praise for Death on Scenic Drive for giving the movie a beautiful polish. While I do have my gripes with Death on Scenic Drive, there’s still plenty of good left in the film that’s worth sitting through, if, of course, you’re willing to take on the challenge.
To start with, I felt that some scenes were overstretched, thus they lacked a good balance and rhythm. If the built-up tension was the reason for the length, then I would say, tone down a minute or two. And then there is the issue of whether Larissa should morph into “Death” or not. Take into consideration the fact that the figure that shows up does not declare himself ‘Death’ For example, it could have just as easily been a faceless demon from Gosh knows where. That is not a real critique of the film, but rather something more of an analysis that I did not find very agreeable. Lastly, as I highlighted in the previous section “The Good” the film appears to take a dramatic 40-plus minutes until any real action happens. Agreed that there are noises creaking, howling winds, and bumping but those certainly aren’t what anyone would define as scary. And as far as those bumps are concerned, Larissa appears to be completely unfazed by them. In fact, nothing fazes Larissa absolutely nothing! Strange bumps during the night? Nope! Doors open without a human touch? Nope! Barking and later devouring the family pet? Nope! While she is a tad abnormal, she appears to be chill about the whole thing.
Lastly, and this is a minor detail, but how is it possible that the family comes back and nobody cares about the missing dog? They don’t even bat an eyelid, they just calmly walk upstairs to sleep.
I honestly expected Larissa’s scene when she was devouring the dog to be awarded “The Ugly” tag right away, but when she pulled out her tampon and started licking it? Yep, that’s the winner!
Death on Scenic Drive can now be accessed in digital format via Google Play and Amazon Instant. While I too felt the final half an hour was definitely the icing on the cake in this horror dish, I just felt unsatisfied afterwards. Thus, here’s my verdict, out of TOV’s five stars, I rate Death on Scenic Dive two and a half stars.
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