The Curse of Buckout Road (2017) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
23 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
5/10
Creepy movie that just doesn't come together
jmbovan-47-1601735 May 2020
I honored the acting (of many of the performers) and overall production values of this film with a 5. They had a nifty idea for a film, following a number of films of a "haunted road", and they added more to it to enrich the concept away from typical tropes. The problem I found with all these additions is that they didn't add up to anything whole. The film ultimately has a simple narrative that is a "surprise" at the end. Ho hum, not much of a surprise. The various elements become confusing as if they melded several short film ideas into this overall concept. And this led to characters having one dimensional qualities that didn't do justice to what they were experiencing. It is creepy enough that I wanted to see the whole film, but I started the crossword puzzle halfway through it.
12 out of 15 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
RUINED by a LAZY ending!
AndyVanScoyoc4 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I really detest 99% of Indie horror. If it's not constant nudity, it's useless sex scenes that serve no purpose.

Throw in STUPID decisions and there's no wonder Horror movies have become the laughing stock of even car insurance commercials!

Good movie and had great promise, despite some lacking cohesive-ness.

I was willing to overlook that because it appeared to be a good attempt...and...NO stupidity.

I ALWAYS cut movies that attempt to be real creations (and not just rely on the carnal to boost ratings) some slack and this one, I did...

Until the end.

A good movie, RUINED by a lazy ending.

Did the script writer not realize that not really ending a movie is lazy?

Was the script writer incapable of writing a decent ending?

Was the script writer unsure of HOW to end the movie so just gave up?

Whatever the reason, it ruined what, for the most part, was a decent film.

SOOOOOO disappointed!
4 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
No Fake High Ratings Here
nickeyblack3510 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This movie had potential, but the direction they took failed miserably. Plus i don't like the fact that the word NIGGER was used in this film with such vitriol, and someone above me mention no swearing....lol. The ending was complete garbage. The focus should have remained in the Grandfather and the grandson, but it just went left. The best scene in the movie was the woman running out the closet
6 out of 11 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
2/10
I want my 90 minutes back
africe19 March 2020
Half decent movie with the worst possible ending. I feel I wasted 90 minutes of my life on this crap. Not sure I want to take chances on these films anymore. And I'm an avid horror fan! What was Danny Glover thinking????
12 out of 15 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
2/10
This movie just fell on its face in the end
soulcrisis2820 April 2021
I'd like to start out by saying @jdpark-29254 you need to go get some help buddy, you're wound up way too tight. To get that upset about pronouncing an old German guys name that I assure you most people haven't heard of unless they are specializing in his same field, well yeah you just need to see a professional or get laid or something I dunno.

On to the movie, it started out with a different spin on urban legends and what have you but then it got lost in itself and just deflated and fell flat in the end. I do my best to not put spoilers so you can read my warning to skip this particular movie before hand, doesn't do you any good after the fact lol. So, story? Nope. Acting? Actually was pretty good except for Ross, yeah Diana Ross's son. Terrible actor, terrible cast choice, very annoying, not to mention he has a girls voice. I kid you not, you can close your eyes and when he talks, you'd could argue it may be a girl talking. Everything was tolerable but, bad story and bad cast? Well you're pretty much done at that point anyway. I'd skip this one unless you are having trouble finding something to watch because this is still better than a lot of real stinkers I've seen sadly in the past. That's why I'm here though, my suffering to save you your precious and valuable time. Until my next review, keep the film rolling.
9 out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
1/10
Terrible ending
Cindy_Michelle7 July 2020
Average horror with a terrible ending. Not worth it.
9 out of 14 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
1/10
bad ending, lots of messaging
rektaronis29 September 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Moral of the movie is witches are real, and they are good, they try to fight evil with their witchcraft. and there's secret cult like groups serving the devil, and they win, the end.,

seriously the bad guys win in the end. who writes a script like that? must be a sociopath.
18 out of 35 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
What a Mess
mrdwd-9715717 October 2022
This film was a fine example of way too many ideas shoved into a meandering, sloppy, almost laughable mess.

You couldn't find a coherent storyline in this script with a magnifying glass and a flashlight. And your heart really goes out to these poor, mostly mediocre, actors trying to claw there way through this mish-mosh in order to make some sense of it. When one of the main charcters "suddenly" figures out what and why anything is happening, the revelation just drops out of the sky. You could see the unoriginal "twist" ending a mile away. This one os just for the "auteur's" friends and family.
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
2/10
Good storyline, very bad ending
verdandee20 June 2021
This movies was trending a solid 7 until the very unsatisfying ending. Decent acting, great storyline, but the ending was terrible. It's like the screen writers just didn't know how to end it... makes me feel like I just wasted an hour & a half of my life.
3 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Fun watch if you like this sort of film
martinadesloge8 May 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This film provided one of the best, out of left field, comedy lines I've heard in a long time. Total spittake LOL for me. I also really loved the 70s "movie"scenes. So perfect and so spot on for 70s horror films.
2 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
We are way past crazy
nogodnomasters12 January 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The film incorporates the various urban legends surrounding Buckout Road and adds one of its own.

Professor Stepahine Hancock (Mayko Nguyen) teaches a class in humanities. As a class project, three students debunk the local legend. Soon suicides occur. Meanwhile, Aaron Powell (Evan Ross) comes home his grandfather psychologist Lawrence Powell (Danny Glover).

This was an okay film about another haunted road. If you like this one, you might try "Lemon Tree Passage."

Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity.
5 out of 10 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
A fun midnight horror flick
JasonMcFiggins6 October 2019
After a buzz worthy and award winning festival run, Buckout Road is finally released to the masses and I've been looking forward to this movie. I'm happy to say I was not disappointed! I loved the imagery in the film regarding the legends of Buckout Road, "the most haunted road in America." They were very creepy and effective and helped establish the eerie mythology that served as a strong backbone to the story. I got a late 90's teen horror flick feel from this one and that's just fine with me. Great performances, an intriguing story, effective costumes and cinematography all help make Buckout Road a fun midnight horror flick. And with all the legends left untapped there's plenty of room for a sequel.
7 out of 24 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Lol
curse-of-egypt21 May 2021
They say seeing is believing but don't always believe what you see. Well I actually looked up the name of the road, and the location its says is in New York, and lo and behold? The road actually exists and they say the urban myth is real.
2 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Terrible Ending made move worse.
sunlightsix9 June 2021
It could have been real good, but never made it, the ending made the whole thing waste of time. Too bad it had potential. Stupid Ending.
3 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
1/10
Evan Ross is a horrible leading man
texasboyy27 June 2021
I've never seen Evan Ross in anything before this and never want to again. He's the worst. His irritating Kevin Hart voice and total lack of talent made it impossible to watch him. Add that to the rest of this ridiculously amateurish movie, and you end up with 90 excruciating minutes (which seemed like three hours) of pointless story, mediocre characters and not a single second of suspense, thrills or scares. Remember when bad movies at least had the sense to have their female stars strip off their clothes to give us some reason for watching? Movies like this need to start doing that again, because the script and acting aren't doing it.
4 out of 8 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
1/10
Basic intellectual knowledge falls on its face
jdpark-292546 April 2021
Don't want to be an intellectual snob but I simply CAN'T overlook how the entire cast and crew did not know how how to pronounce a well-known philosopher's name: Emmanuel KANT. Yes, they actually allowed KANT to be pronounced like "CAN'T" at 13 minutes and 40 seconds. This is the point I turned off my iPad and took my brain into the hospital to exam it for any potential injuries.

This is a very minuscule example of how Americans are falling way behind and no one is around to pick it up from the dirt and smack some sense into it.
4 out of 25 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
1/10
cringiest thing ever
thenemesisk29 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I watched the first minute or 2 and thats literally all i could take. arrogant incompetent college professor asking a student to prove god exists, then some god awful cringe bedroom scene with putrid acting, i didnt even know if they were going for scary or comical when she ran out of the closet and screamed in the guys face liek an idiot and then fell over or fainted or i dont even know. please learn how to make a movie
3 out of 17 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
2/10
Someone needs to take this premise and completely remake this movie
kevin_robbins28 February 2022
The Curse of Buckout Road (2017) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows the famous Buckout Road and the various legends that surround it. When a group of kids post a video about the legends of Buckout Road not being true, and why they believe the stories aren't true, everyone involved in the video starts having nightmares about the various legends. Soon their nightmares start becoming realities.

This movie is directed by Matthew Currie Holmes (Traces) in his directorial debut and stars Evan Ross (The Hunger Games), Henry Czerny (Mission: Impossible), Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon), Dominique Provost-Chalkley (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Colm Feore (Thor) and Jim Watson (Crimsin Peak).

This storyline had so much potential from real life ghost stories to a solid cast. Unfortunately using the children as the primary drivers of the plot was awful. The horror elements were also fairly weak until the very end. They should have stolen some ideas from Dead End or The Conjuring. There's a neck slice scene that was the highlight of the movie for me towards the end, but up until that point this film had nothing going for it. The ending was extra cheesy and very disappointing.

Someone needs to take this premise and completely remake this movie. Overall this was very poorly made and disappointing. I would score this a 2/10 and recommend skipping it.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
The curious case of the small-time horror thriller
I_Ailurophile7 October 2021
This movie is rife with odd incongruities. Various story beats, bits of dialogue, and otherwise elements are at times characterized by being tropes, too neat and clean to be believable, too smart or clever for its own good, or too ham-handed. That includes, for example, the highly stylized visualization of characters' dreams, where a simple descriptive monologue would have sufficed. Another great example: exposition and background lore provided by characters by way of a documentary-style video, a college project - inserted very pointedly when it's seemingly needed most. On top of all this, first time writer-director Matthew Currie Holmes has managed to assemble some very noteworthy names and faces to appear in his feature debut, including Danny Glover, Colm Feore, Henry Czerny, and Dominique Provost-Chalkley.

Most peculiar of all is that I don't think any of this is an accident. We get some jarring imagery, an air of mystery, a minor sense of suspense, and a modestly absorbing story. But 'The curse of Buckout Road' is also full of overarching yet underhanded cheeky humor and a quirky playfulness. Moments of would-be emotional weight are glossed over in such a matter-of-fact fashion as to render them perfunctory. It's all a weird mish-mash of contrasting and clashing ideas, moods, and tactics.

I don't dislike it. I also don't entirely know what to make of it.

Holmes' screenplay seems strangely (staggeringly?) adaptable. This movie could have been a straightforward horror thriller. It could have been a straightforward horror comedy. It could be a drama, a psychological thriller, a B-movie romp - all with just a few tweaks. Instead, Holmes elected to more or less blend all these aspects into a single feature. It's an interesting method, and I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with it. However, these disparate aspects do not mesh together with complete success. In trying to do and be so much, 'Buckout Road' doesn't allow any facet to be realized with all its due. Thrills are diminished, shock is dampened, actors are restricted, and our fun is somewhat weakened.

None of this is to say it's bad. I like the narrative. While Glover, Czerny, and Feore aren't given a great deal to do by comparison, Provost-Chalkley defies the constraints of the production to turn in an entertaining, varied performance with all the dexterity we know she's capable of. I'm not especially familiar with star Evan Ross, yet even as his lead role is likewise delineated for him, I think he handles the spotlight well. And I actually really like the ending.

I just wish it were all more consistent.

You could do a lot worse. This is entertaining, and where it succeeds, it excels. Where it falls short, it's dubious. The greatest deficiency of all is just an overabundance of notions all forced into the same picture. I don't begrudge anyone for particularly disliking this - I want to like it more than I do. Ultimately, 'The curse of Buckout Road' is a horror-thriller for viewers receptive to a smorgasbord of storytelling approaches, and if you can abide the complications, this is a pretty good time.
0 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Fun Thriller!
ravdeesh2 October 2019
Enjoyed the jump scares .. had good humour in the right places - solid film from start to finish...keeps you engaged.
5 out of 22 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
9/10
PUTS A CLEVER NEW SPIN ON URBAN LEGENDS WHILE PAYING LOVING HOMAGE TO MIDNIGHT HORROR
bkgreenhaw5 October 2019
I'm a sucker for urban legends and real life ghost stories, so I was pumped to see this film from the synopsis alone. Fortunately, THE CURSE OF BUCKOUT ROAD does not disappoint. I had an absolute blast with this well-paced and engaging film that's part dramatic psychological thriller, part supernatural mystery, and part satisfying throwback to 80s grindhouse horror. It kept me guessing throughout, and filmmaker Matthew Currie Holmes does a great job balancing the tonal shifts as the film moves effortlessly from humor, to drama, to creeping suspense.

CURRIE HOLMES BRINGS AN EXPERTISE AND ASSUREDNESS BEHIND THE CAMERA THAT REFLECTS THE WORK OF A MORE SEASONED FILMMAKER. He also demonstrates a strong ability to elicit powerful performances from his talented cast. To put it plainly, this film looks incredible. Creative filmmaking choices are used to great effect for the re-enactments (shown through dream sequences) of the creepy urban legends the road is famous for.

THE CURSE OF BUCKOUT ROAD is a supernatural love letter to the midnight movies of the 1980s that Currie Holmes grew up on. The captivating dream sequences play out as mini films within a film, each shot in its own unique style. The scenes - which include three witches being burned at the stake and teens being terrorized by albino cannibals - pay homage to genre tropes and the various cinematic stylings of the 70s and 80s. They are as disturbing as they are visually compelling. Rich textures and thoughtful costume design add a sense of authenticity to the nightmarish sequences.

This is a film made for horror fans by someone who is also an avid fan. At no point does Currie Holmes talk down to or pander to the audience. There's a genuine affection for the genre and genre fans that's infused in every scene, every line of well written dialogue, and every convincing characterization. There's an attention to detail that highlights both the expertise and the heart behind the camera.

MEANWHILE, IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA, THE CAST REALLY SHINES.

Veteran actor Danny Glover is every bit as good as you'd expect to him to be, and his presence in the film instantly lends a sense of gravitas to the proceedings.He's joined by two other seasoned, powerhouse actors, Henry Czerny and Colm Feore. Both more than deliver, especially Czerny who is every bit the scene-stealing showman he was in the recent horror hit Ready or Not. But it's not just the pros who bring their A-game. Young actors Evan Ross and Dominque Provost-Chalkley are exceptional.

Ross plays his character with a subtle hard edge while remaining utterly likable and sympathetic. Provost-Chalkley is a standout and simply mesmerizing to watch on screen. Additionally, Kyle Mac and Jim Watson add great comedic relief as a pair of endearing, fraternal stoner twins.

There are a few solid shocks and a subtle, restrained use of gore. But don't go into this film expecting an over-the-top bloodbath or a jump scare-fueled ghost film. Instead, Currie Holmes relies on well developed characters and intelligent storytelling to build suspense and make you care. There's also some interesting subtext about the eternal battle of faith versus fact that adds surprising depth to the film.
2 out of 19 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
9/10
Jess Reviews Movies -Buckout Road
jdamen-543415 October 2019
Felt the film was cleverly written. The dialog was natural and led into a great story. There was great character development, with many suspenseful, thrilling, moments. Love the ending! Can't wait to see what Matthew Currie-Holmes does next.
2 out of 20 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
9/10
Homage to 80's horror classics.
info-5485515 June 2021
The Omen meets Urban Legend.

Love the cast & music.

Really fun ride.

Love the religious undercurrent & modern day Story of Job.
1 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed