Tense, relatable, and cut from a familiar narrative cloth, “Rust Creek” manages to overcome a few character and pacing issues to emerge as a quality thriller. The story of a young woman who gets lost in Kentucky’s backcountry and runs afoul of the locals, the film makes a meal out of a very thin premise, and only occasionally stretches the strictures of reason and common sense. And while “Rust Creek” stumbles over a couple of rough patches by way of a few cliché characters, the bones of a good movie are indeed here.
Efficient script work introduces the audience to the movie’s lead, Sawyer (Hermione Corfield), and the basics of her story before the credits have finished. She’s a college student on her way from her school in Kentucky to Washington, D.C. for a job interview when bad interstate traffic forces the young woman off the main route and into the sticks. Sawyer’s GPS leads her to a closed-off road well into the detour, forcing the young woman to pull over and study a map when two men happen upon her. Things take a startling turn when these men get aggressive, forcing Sawyer to flee into the nearby woods after she and her attackers all sustain injuries in a struggle.
As Sawyer stumbles through the woods hobbled by a nasty wound, the dynamic of the narrative comes into focus, what with the city kid full of book-smarts facing off against ruthless country rubes on their home turf. Sawyer might be out of her element, but her actions paint her as a woman possessed of plenty of intelligence, good instincts, and a hell of a lot of chutzpah. “Rust Creek” proceeds thus from here, utilizing a cat and mouse action trope to push Sawyer to her mental and physical limits.
Director Jen McGowan does a great job keeping the tension dialed up by containing the story to the world she’s built up in these rural locations. Although the film jumps around a bit to give the audience a look at the local cops and their efforts to locate Sawyer, attention is never pulled too far away from what’s going on in the woods as the villains draw ever-closer to their prey. The film also isn’t afraid to put Sawyer through her paces as she makes mistakes throughout the ordeal, which gives the whole thing a more organic feel and grounds Sawyer as a character.
Even so, as “Rust Creek” moves through its second act, the supporting characters and their dialogue devolve somewhat into formulaic “evil” and “heroic” archetypes. There’s not a lot of nuance or character layering, and bad guys are decidedly bad while good guys are…well, you get the idea. There’s some promise in the introduction of the Lowell (Jay Paulson) character, a backcountry meth cook who gets tangled up in Sawyer’s drama. Yet, this too fails to rise above the basics of his function in the plot. Likewise, the town Sheriff, O’Doyle (Sean O’Bryan), serves a very singular role in the story, and isn’t allowed much room in the script to sink roots in and develop as a believable character.
Even so, the story does hum along at a decent clip, and despite a few jumps in logic concerning the state police and the lack of cell phones in key situations, the plot does indeed hold together. The muted color palette of “Rust Creek” feels appropriate to the setting as it relates to the narrative, as if to suggest that all the life and vibrancy of these woods has been sucked out by the menace of forces both internal and external (there’s even an opioid crisis mention thrown in for good measure). The action is well-staged and believable, and the basic premise has a universal appeal that seems fitting for Sawyer, but could translate to any number of scenarios involving a person outside of their element.
Opening this week, “Rust Creek” does well for itself with a thin premise and narrative beats that are indeed familiar, yet work nonetheless. Corfield does solid work in the lead role and represents a refreshing change of pace as it concerns the beleaguered female victim in this particular narrative convention. Sawyer isn’t waiting to be saved in “Rust Creek,” and takes matters into her own hands when the chips are down: allowing for a considerable amount of agency in a script that might just as easily have cast her into a sobbing, frantic state. Calling the movie a female-empowerment, 21st-century take on “Deliverance” might be a bit reductive, but by the end, “Rust Creek” does enough to earn this distinction: making it worth the watch on this merit alone. [B-]