The Dividing Hour
VHS Playground Films
1998, 89 minutes Unrated

review by Lee Peterson

   Shot-on-video movies always end up looking like cheap porn or your familyís home movies (or both if youíre in the right family, heh-heh!). You just cannot reproduce the look of film with video, and unfortunately, most viewers cannot or will not see past that. Forget the crap that J.R. Bookwalter and Kevin Lindenmuth excrete. The Dividing Houris--dare I say it--the best shot-on-video horror feature since Scooter McRae's Shatter Dead.

   For just $7,000 (or, less than the weekly cell phone bill on most films!), co-writer/co-producer/director Mike Prosser has crafted an intense, stylish indie calling card that, if it had been shot on film, would no doubt be mentioned in the same breath as El Mariachiand The Evil Dead. 

   Prosser contributes a great star turn as Josh, who drives the getaway car for his bank-robbing pals Peter (the gun-toting psycho asshole, played by Brad Goodman), Dean (the goofy pot-head, played by Greg James), and younger brother Zack (played by Prosserís real-life younger brother Brian). When the car breaks down, the gang hitches a ride with a friendly local (Jay Horenstein) to a remote farmhouse in hopes of using the telephone. Naturally, the phone line's down, so the boys wait around and try to amuse themselves with the deaf/blind/damn-near comatose farmer (Max Yoakum) and his saintly daughter Dawn (Jillian Hodges). 

   Immediately, things get surreal, with an empty refrigerator that produces lemonade and apples (except when Peter looks inside). Mysterious, half-glimpsed figures in the woods outside recall the graveyard spooks in Phantasmand the spectre in John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness.Josh's druggy nightmares/flashbacks slowly reveal the sinister forces at work (and the meaning of the film's title).  It would spoil a crucial plot point to compare The Dividing Hourto the 60's indie chiller it most resembles, so I'll leave it to you to figure out. 

   The Dividing Hour'sslam-bang climax features some crude but cool stop-motion (a la The Evil Dead)and CGI fx that are much smoother than the stuff you see in big-budget Hollywood junk. Cinematographer Jeff Yarnell's strong visual style, coupled with the tight script (co-written by David Walker, editor of the essential blaxploitation 'zine BadAzz MoFo) give The Dividing Hour  the look and the feel of a multi-million dollar effort.

    If you're tired of wading through the "Spring Break Bimbo Massacre" shot-on-video wasteland (and even if you're not), check out the real deal. 
The Dividing Houris available from:

official website: www.dolphinative.com
 

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