Blood River (2009)

I'm never sure what to expect going into an Adam Mason movie.  I loved Broken, I hated The Devil's Chair, and Pig gave me a whole lot to think about.  So I went into Blood River on a pretty even keel.  Personally, I think Andrew Howard (an Adam Mason favorite) is sexy as all hell.  But then again, this is also coming from a person who lusts over Otis Driftwood, so you should take my opinion with a grain of the proverbial salt. 

Blood River is about a couple, Clark (Ian Duncan) and Summer (Tess Panzer), who are traveling through the desert on the way to Summer's parents' house.  Why, you say?  Well, Summer is pregnant with their child, and they're on the way to tell the grandparents.  While driving, they see a drifter, Joseph (Andrew Howard) and decide not to pick him up.  Later, they meet him again at the middle-of-nowhere motel they stop at.

After leaving the motel the next morning, they blow a tire on the desolate highway and are forced to hike to the next town five miles down the road.  Upon arrival, they run into Joseph once again, at first seeing him as a savior.  He offers to siphon gas from their broken-down car in order to get his started again, bringing them to safety.  However, unfortunately, this is just the beginning.  Joseph is not exactly human, and is here to reveal secrets, and make people pay for their sins.

This movie is heavily shrouded in both mystery and religious connotations.  You'll be a bit annoyed by the lack of a conclusion, but the point of the movie, it seems, is to decide what happened on your own.  I'd love to meet Adam Mason one day, and pick his brain on what he intended the wrongdoing to be, if he even had one in mind at all.  The cinematography in Blood River is simply breathtaking, and the acting is superb.  Definitely one worth checking out, even if those cliffhanger endings eat away at you.