Horror Movie Review: Southbound (2015)

Directed by Radio Silence, Roxanne Benjamin, David Bruckner and Patrick Horvath, Southbound is a 2015 anthology comprised of five interlocking stories that take place on a stretch of desert highway.

The first is called The Way Out and sees Mitch (Chad Villella) and Jack (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin) being pursued across the desert by floating demons. How they got into this situation won’t be revealed until the end of the anthology. The pair stop at a remote gas-station where everyone inside acts a little strange to them and the creatures watch from afar. Leaving, a little further down the road Mitch and Jack discover the same gas-station. Mitch tries to leave and gets killed by the creatures while Jack chooses to follow the creatures to a nearby motel. There the unimaginable horror of his fate is revealed.

The Way Out is an odd opener as it leaves many questions that won’t actually be answered until the finale of the anthology. It is very mysterious and while it does feel disjointed, it sets things up nicely.

Siren is a vast improvement though, taking place at the same motel seen at the end of The Way Out. Sadie (Fabianne Therese), Ava (Hannah Marks), and Kim (Nathalie Love) are travelling musicians in a band called The White Tights. They break down in the desert and are picked up a friendly but odd couple (Susan Burke and Davey Johnson).

The couple take them to their nearby house and encourage them to stay the night. Sadie is uncomfortable about staying there though made even worse when she overhears the couple talking about the group’s friend who died!

The trio stay and have dinner with the couple and the Kensington family (Anessa Ramsey and Dana Gould), who live nearby with their twin sons. The dinner is an odd one as it’s a badly burnt meatloaf. Sadie is a vegetarian so doesn’t eat anything but the other two do. It seems to affect them though as Kim starts to blame Sadie for the death of Alex and then the pair start vomiting black liquid.

The couple give Kim and Ava a white liquid to drink which is the final straw for Sadie. She wants to leave now but seemingly in a trance, Kim and Ava insist they are staying the night.

After having a dream about Alex’s death, Sadie wakes up to find Ava and Kim gone. She heads outside and witnesses the houses occupants as well as Ava and Kim taking part in some sort of ritual. Forced to run for her life she ends up in the road hailing an approaching car.

Siren is a really effective horror, building atmosphere and dread through the behaviour of people. A simple story plays out really well thanks to the creepy and unsettling cast. They’re friendly but they have underlying menace.

This carries over into The Accident as Lucas (Mather Zickel), the driver of the car Sadie is trying to wave down talks to his wife Claire on the phone. They’re not getting along which is enough to distract him resulting in Sadie getting hit by his car when he doesn’t see her.

Lucas stops and gets out discovering Sadie is badly hurt. He calls 911 but because he doesn’t know where he is, he is told her to take her to a nearby town where there is a hospital.

Sadie is clinging to life as Lucas gets to the hospital which he finds abandoned. While on the phone to the dispatcher, a doctor comes on the line and they attempt to guide him through performing surgery on Sadie himself.

Seeing no other option, Lucas attempts to follow their guidance but inevitably she dies. The voices all laugh at him proving that they goaded him into killing her. Lucas tries to leave and finds all the doors locked. Losing hope, he gets a call from the original dispatcher he spoke too who tells him that he doesn’t deserve this and that he is free to go. The doors are open, clean clothes and a new car have been left for him.

You’re waiting for a sting in the tail but it never comes. Lucas gets in the car and drives away where one of the floating demon creatures watches from afar.

Abrupt ending aside, The Accident is a decent entry that ties up the story told in Siren while delivering a graphic and impactful horror.

Next up is Jailbreak where we see the dispatcher from The Accident watch Lucas drive away.

Sandy (Maria Olsen) then heads into a nearby bar shortly followed by Danny (David Yow) who comes in holding a shotgun. He demands to know where his sister is from the bar patrons, one of which turns into a demon and attacks him. Danny fights off the demon and takes the bartender hostage, forcing him to drive to his sister’s location.

Once there he finds his sister but she doesn’t want to be rescued. Jesse (Tipper Newton) is choosing to stay in the town as her punishment for killing their parents. When Danny gets over-powered by the demons she chooses to leave him behind and drive away.

A disappointing entry as the payoff doesn’t make the investment worth it. It’s easily the most predictable and also the shortest.

The final part of the anthology is called The Way In and ties up the loose ends from The Way Out. Jem (Hassie Harrison), a teenage girl sees Jesse returning after leaving her brother to die. She then goes to finish her food with her parents Cait and Daryl (Kate Beahan and Gerald Downey).

After dinner they return to their house but are interrupted by three masked men who break in. Jem manages to hide but her parents are caught and tied up. Daryl begs for the men to spare his family but they kill Cait in front of him.

Jem attacks them & they fight her off before telling her to leave which she does. The men then kill Daryl revealing themselves to be Mitch and Jack from The Way Out. They killed the couple for something they did to a girl in a photograph and with their revenge complete, they leave. However, Jem returns and attacks them again resulting in her getting killed accidentally. Realising that they went too far the men feel guilty but as they go to leave the ground opens up and the mysterious floating creatures emerge.

The anthology ends with Mitch and Jack arriving at the gas station from the start.

It’s a great finale that helps make sense of the opener. A standard home invasion angle ties everything nicely together resulting in an overall experience that flows. There is enough mystery throughout to leave you wanting more yet it still gives enough answers to leave you satisfied. The five segments unsettle you in different ways and each works as a stand alone while tying into the overall narrative too.

It’s a stylish horror anthology which helps gloss over some of the issues that do exist.

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