Leaving Las Vegas

 

I like to run. Well, "like" and "run" are very loose verbs in this scenario. I enjoy exercise and the outdoors, and adulthood with schedule restrictions being what it is, I have accepted that trotting is the best way to maintain some form of health. I'm a chubby 42 year old woman with the legs of an enthusiastic corgi. My version of "running" is probably significantly slower than, say, an Olympian with a stomach flu who fell out a three story window (and by Olympian, I mean a senior citizen living in Washington's capital city).

I bring this up not to brag about my incredible athleticism, but to say that today's feature understands a fundamental truth about the importance endurance training: you don't have to be fast. You just have to be slightly faster than a resurrected corpse.

Quick Plot: Molly and Nick are the kind of couple you do not want to be driving next to when leaving Las Vegas. Drinking, fighting, and generally awful, they run into car trouble on a desert highway en route to an airfield where their pal is fixing up a plane to get out of the country. Why, you ask? A zombie apocalypse of course!

Nick is armed, but seems to have little experience actually using a gun. It only takes one rotting but well-dressed shambler to take him down, leaving the frantic Molly to trek 36 miles in the hot Nevada sun (and chunky boots with an unreasonable heel).

At least she's not alone. The same zombie who chomped on Nick is hot on her tail, but thankfully, this is more Romero-verse than Snyder-verse. All Molly has to do is figure out the exact pace needed to keep him a few feet back, scramble up a low rock to sleep, and continue on her journey. At least he's a good listener!

Like many a walking dead story, this one dives into the question of who the real monsters are, but it does so in quite an interesting way. I won't spoil the beats, but for its first 2/3rds or so, It Stains the Sand Red is the exact kind of zombie movie I love. It takes a premise we know well and finds an incredibly specific angle to explore a story we haven't quite seen in this context.

It helps that the movie rests on the very capable shoulders of Brittany Allen, who would go on to another great role (and composing credit) for Colin Minihan's followup, What Keeps You Alive. Her roles in the two movies couldn't really be any more different, save for how much they show two very different women tapping into some deep and clever survival skills. 

Not every final girl comes loaded with the engineering skills of a Nancy Thompson or perfect aim of Sarah Polley. Sometimes, the last woman standing is a cocaine-sniffing deadbeat mom who knows she's made mistakes, and has just enough perseverance to put everything she has together and soldier on. 

Colin Minihan has a very good track record to my personal tastes. He was one half of the team behind the great Grave Encounters and the full talent behind the thrilling What Keeps You Alive. It Stains the Sand Red came somewhere in between, and while it has a lot of the same features that make those two films so good (clear and specific characters, slight twists on familiar stories) the actual structure of the film falls a bit short. The movie feels like it's over at least twice before the last act, which makes things drag even with a brief 90 minute running time. I understand the importance of getting to that final beat (no spoilers), but the energy just doesn't sustain it. 

That aside, I still had a very good time with It Stains the Sand Red. There's a lot to enjoy, and the actual arc and conclusion are satisfying. I just wish it all fit together a little more cleanly.

High Points

Brittany Allen does not have an easy job in crafting Molly, a woman who can probably best be described as a hot mess and that's on a good day, but who also comes loaded with brains to adjust to the situation as it unfolds. The movie relies on her performance

Low Points

Aforementioned structural flow

Lessons Learned

Zombies are tempted, but not taken by the game of fetch...unless it involves tampons

Convertibles are not the best choice of vehicle during a zombie apocalypse

Cocaine is an excellent appetite suppressant 

Rent/Bury/Buy

I had a very good (not quite great) time with this movie. It's almost more drama/comedy than horror, so don't necessarily expect to be scared. That being said, this is definitely made for the horror fan, and I think most will find a lot here. As of this posting, it's streamable on Peacock.