Not Your Daddy’s Oklahoma!

Sheol, OK

I enjoy watching independent film productions.  They find brilliant ways to use their limited resources to give the viewer the best possible version of their particular vision.  Independent horror is particularly interesting to me because these films often push boundaries and explore dark corners of the mind that large studios won’t risk funding at a potential loss of profit.  The big boys are quite happy producing mediocre PG-13 horror films that will draw in a certain demographic and make at least a minimal profit from with minimal risks.

Once in awhile an independent film comes along that blazes new trails for the horror genre.  The Evil Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are two well known independent horror films that took horror into new territories of gore, terror, and even humor (especially The Evil Dead).  Newer indie films like The Babadook and Wolf Creek continue to push the envelope with gore, mental anguish, etc.

Meet Me There doesn’t necessarily blaze any new trails, but it does attempt to follow the paths of many of its predecessors.  The film opens up with what is apparently supposed to be an unnerving event that opens the viewer’s mind to a ton of questions.  Then the focus shifts to Ada (Lisa Friedrich) and her beau, Calvin (Micheal Foulk), as the duo return to Ada’s small hometown of Sheol, Oklahoma in an attempt to remedy her issues with intimacy.  Ada can’t recall many memories from her childhood and she and Calvin think that by visiting her old home, her memory will be triggered and she can remove any blocks that might be putting a strain on their love life.

The film follows the couple on their journey to Sheol from Austin, Texas, giving us more insight into both characters.  Ada talks about the few memories that she can recall and Calvin brings up a light memory of him dealing with Smurfs.  The entire sequence is rather long, bordering on mediocrity.

Once the pair arrive in Sheol, a bizarre sequence of events begins to unfold that includes everything from locals pulling a gun on Calvin for being an outsider in a Cleveland Indians cap to a visit with Ada’s strung out aunt who accuses her of bringing evil to the town.  There are also two interactions with Preacher Woodward (Dustin Runnels) who I’m sure WWE fans will recognize as Goldust and his daughter, that can be described as uneasy (the first one) and completely whacked out (the second one).

The film rambles all over the place with no real direction in sight.  As is standard for most horror films, the lead couple make one bad decision after another and get into more trouble and more bizarre situations.  Also, one thing that I found puzzling was that despite being from the small town, no one seems to recognize Ada outside of her aunt.  Everyone just seems to want her and Calvin to end up dead and they are more than eager to help them end up that way.

Light humor is injected throughout the film, much of it being delivered by Foulk, but it’s very forced in some instances.  There are also shots of druids in the forest doing things in various states of undress.  I didn’t know whether to laugh at these moments or be terrified by them.  I ultimately just stared at them wondering what the heck was going on in the scene.

Eventually the film ends and the viewer is left with just as many questions as he or she might have had at the the beginning of the film.  It’s a very bizarre flick that really doesn’t seem to have any defined end in sight.  While this works for a lot of horror films, it fails pretty hard in Meet Me There.

I will say that I enjoyed the performances of Friedrich, Runnels, and Jill Thompson (who portrayed Ada’s Aunt Lindsay).  Friedrich in particular really put herself out there in the film, and I commend her for her work.  Runnels does well with what he has to work with, and in all honesty I’d love to see him take on a slasher type role in the future.  Thompson plays up her character’s addictions and gives an excellent performance as a woman in an abusive relationship that has given up on life and has become a bit unhinged.

The film isn’t terrible, but I don’t see it making any lasting impression.  It is apparently loosely based on the hometown stories of Destiny Talley (who co-wrote the film with Brandon Stroud) and seems to try and fuse these small town stories (every small town has at least one weird story) into a horror film.  Hopefully the cast and the writers will continue working on projects like this, as I did see a few flashes of greatness within Meet Me There, but not enough to recommend buying this film.  It’s currently available to stream for free on Amazon Prime, so if you’ve got a little time to kill, give it a chance.  You might like it more than I did.

Thanks for reading, everyone.  Be sure to go out and support indie films, especially if they are created locally.  I’ve been involved with a few short films myself, and they are extremely fun to work on with friends and locals.  Even if the end product isn’t all that great, it’s still a great feeling to put something out there for others to see and tell them, “I made this.”