US, 2024
Review:
JA Kerswell
This slasher-adjacent indie rape/revenge movie is thankfully short on the former and satisfyingly long on the latter. A sadistic group of frat boys’ plans to hunt and kill a trio of young women is partly thwarted by the arrival of an unlikely pair of good samaritans. While it shares some admittedly minor issues common with indie productions, its sheer force and single-mindedness see it through to its blood-soaked climax.
Abby (Brandi Botkin), Jade (Erica Dodt) and Brie (Callie Kirk) are three friends looking forward to a frat party at a remote cabin in the woods. Abby is especially excited as she has a crush on one of the boys, Cody (Bob Wilcox). On arrival, they are a little uneasy about being the only women there but take the word of their hosts that others are coming very soon. However, they are unaware that their drinks have been spiked, with Abby eventually regaining consciousness to hear her friends being sexually assaulted upstairs.
Once the frat boys—including Cody—have finished, they take the trio outside and tell them that they can’t let them live in case one of them “cries rape”. Cody says they are going to have themselves a “… good old-fashioned whore hunt.” They give them a head start before hollering in pursuit through the woods with axes. Abby makes it to the road and waves down a passing car driven by a young couple—Clare (Jamie Alvey) and Gray (Garrett Murphy)—who are returning from a wedding. Before they can leave for safety, the frat boys catch up and warn them to give Abby back. However, Clare and Gray are not your average couple, and before the night is out, plenty of frat blood will be spilt …
Normally, I wouldn’t give away a film’s twist, but it is revealed in the trailer and pretty early on in the proceedings, so I feel it’s fair game. Clare and Gray are a pair of righteous serial killers who only target bad guys—think DEXTER. So they couldn’t have come into Abby’s life at a better time. They turn the tables on the frat boys—who quickly become the panicky hunted. As I mentioned, whilst the film ably sets up the reasons for revenge—unlike other earlier films that deal with the same subject matter—it is heard but not seen. Likewise, we never see the fate of her friends—although we presume they have been killed. The torture and murder of the fratboys, however, is drawn out, painful and bloody—although not without a sense of jet-black humour.
Writer Jamie Alvey (who also plays Clare) and director Mary Beth McAndrews juggle some obviously supercharged themes, from violent misogyny to the corrupting powers of generational privilege. However, perhaps it is a shame that there is no sense of nuance in the film. The frat clique are quite literally poster boys for toxic masculinity. There is no shred of humanity or even individual uncertainty about their actions, which makes them easy to hate. There are, of course, people out there like that—and that in itself is chilling.
Clare and Gray are a likeable trauma-bonded couple who exorcise their demons through hurting bad people—yet, by their own admission, they also enjoy violence and inflicting pain. Perhaps the film misses a trick by making Abby a willing accomplice in the retribution so early on (although she obviously has good reason to want to exact revenge). Adding an element where she was unsure how stable her saviours actually were and how safe she would be after seeing their murder spree might have added an extra frisson of tension—as it is, they are simply accepted as her Avenging Angels.
As to be expected with an indie, the performances can vary but tend to be strong and committed most of the time—especially from the principals. The film is well-shot and makes the most of its budget by cleverly utilising limited locations—the woods and the cabin where the chaos begins.
Although not always the most comfortable viewing, BYSTANDERS never loses sight of the fact that, while uncompromising, it is also a genre film—and a satisfying one at that.
BODY COUNT 9:
Female 3 / Male 6
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BYSTANDERS trailer