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Released by MVD Visual
Released on: June 23, 2015
Directed by: Lex Lybrand
Cast: Lisa Friedrich, Michael Foulk, Dustin Runnels, Jill Thompson
Year: 2014
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The Movie:
Sexual dysfunction is wreaking havoc on the relationship of Ada (Lisa Friedrich) and Calvin (Michael Foulk). It seems whenever Calvin touches Ada she withdraws into herself and becomes distant. A couples' counselor asks Ada about any traumatic events from her past which may explain her dysfunction. When she cannot remember a single detail of her childhood, Calvin suggests they take a road trip to her hometown of Sheol, OK. The car ride goes off without a hitch, however once they get to Sheol things start to unravel.
Lex Lybrand's Meet Me There is a horror film that aims for atmosphere and suspense instead of outright scares. Director Lybrand attempts to build a sense of dread and terror through the odd behavior and strange dialogue of the people of Sheol. He does not really succeed. The film is neither creepy nor suspenseful. Strange things do happen and Lybrand gives the viewer plenty of off kilter imagery, but none of it creates a feeling of terror. This is not to say the film is a failure. While not scary, Lybrand's attempts to elicit fear keep the film interesting. Meet Me There is never boring and moves quite fast.
The film also succeeds in creating a compelling mystery. As a viewer I wanted to know about Ada's past and tried to piece together the information the film gives the audience. There were drug addicted parents, a possibly pedophiliac grandfather, and a satanic cult running around the town and Ada's half-remembered past. None of these scrapes added up to create a complete picture of her childhood, but that is not a bad thing. In fact, I liked that I never truly understood what was happening. This created a feeling of chaos that fit the film.
The two leads, Friedrich and Foulk, were also quite good. The two actors' performances had a natural quality to them, they seemed like a real couple going through a rough patch. Professional wrestler Dustin Runnels (son of the late Dusty Rhodes, RIP Dream) was fine as a demented preacher, while Jill Thompson was believable as Ada's abused, drug addicted aunt. In addition to the performances, I also appreciated how screenwriter Brandon Stroud wrote the characters. While Calvin would become frustrated with Ada's cold, distant behavior, he never became angry and remained supportive of her. This, I felt, was a fresh and realistic approach to a boyfriend character. It was nice to see someone so caring and understanding. Despite taking place in Texas and Oklahoma, Stroud and Lybrand threw in references to my hometown of Cincinnati, OH, which I also enjoyed.
A problem with the film came toward its climax where it became obvious Lybrand and Stroud had no clue on how to end the film. Much like Peter Jackson's Return of the Kind, Meet Me There had about four different endings, and none of them were satisfactory. One of the endings seemed to give the film a supernatural reading which I found disappointing. The film, for me, worked best without the trappings of the paranormal. Aside from this problem, Meet Me There is a decent film. Good acting and character development with plenty of strange imagery made for an enjoyable experience.
Video/Audio/Extras:
MVD Visual brought Meet Me There to DVD with a 1.85:1 image. The picture is ok, not great, but I do not believe that is the fault of the DVD. The cinematography for the film is quite ugly. It seemed like there was some sort of filter on the image that made it feel like you are watching the film through a dirty screen door. This was problematic at first, but I got used to it after a while.
The 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo sound is fine in some places and poor in others. When the sound was bad, it was hard to understand the dialogue. Luckily, this release is given subtitles to help the view along. It should be noted that subtitles lagged behind the dialogue by a beat or so, this was never distracting. Something that was distracting was the use of ADR in some scenes. The looping never quite matched the actors' lips and felt removed from the action on the screen. While these scenes were distracting, there were not too many of them to cause a major problem.
The disc has a couple of special features. The most prominent are two short interviews, one with Runnels and the other with Thompson. Neither interview was much more than talking about how great the film is and how much fun it was to work with the cast and crew. The interviews were not informative and sort of useless. The DVD was rounded out with a short trailer.
The Final Word:
Meet Me There is a decent, no-budget horror film. The story of a young woman trying to remember her past, which may have involved a cult, reminded me of the hoax book Michelle Remembers. The acting is well done and characters are believable. This film is not classic, but there are worst ways to spend an evening.
