directed by:
West Eldredge written by: West Eldredge genre: Thriller, Horror |
John is in pretty bad shape when we meet him for the first time - looking like a bad, poor man’s impersonation of Josh Hartnett. You get the impression that, whatever reason he used to have for living, he’s lost that sense of meaning and purpose deep down at the bottom of the bottle, and the town he’s in is small enough that just about everyone seems to know the names of everybody they run into. It’s got the tiny little sheriff’s office, complete with the glorious Vanessa, who has taken to bringing her kid to work so that she doesn’t have to rely on his deadbeat dad to take care of her boy. And of course, there’s John, who can barely step foot on someone’s property without being confused for some kind of vagrant rummy. I get it…and I’d imagine that you will too once you see him.
Billy, on the other hand, is missing. We’ve seen a truck on the side of the road, a concerned cop trying to find him, a fairly unconcerned family detailing how he met himself a pretty white lady and seemed head over heels in love, but yet, no Billy do we have. He’s gone. Poof. Into the ether. That’s really where “Take From Me” starts to gain some traction and add some mystery to this lil’ Podunk town. John gets an offer to work on a house that he used to work on a long time ago – and from the looks of his beat-up pickup truck, we get the sense that it’s probably best he put his attitude away and just take the job. The new owner seems…interesting. Perplexingly relaxed. Distant. Very strange. She could just be an eccentric rich person, perhaps, but she’s got a genuine charisma to her that’s beyond explanation. In any event, she’s clearly out of John’s league – but to be fair, he’s kind of in a league of his own when we meet him. He’s doing his best to navigate this planet with the tools he got, but they ain’t all that sharp. Not as sharp as, say, the tools that would be required to chop up some bodies and put’em in the freezer downstairs. “How do you feel about cold cuts, John?” asks his strangely seductive host with her eyes open wide as wide can be. John’s scared, but remarkably polite, even going so far as to suggest there’s a good place to stash his own dead body if, for some reason, things came to that. As he manages to escape the house with his host seemingly unconcerned about whether he stays or leaves, he gets pulled over by policeman Abe Jackson, who has clearly seen his share of John when he’s on a bender. And so here we are – the town drunk is the central character, but how can we take anything he has to say for the factual truth when he’s so damn mixed up himself? He does what any of us would naturally do after being pulled over…he sleeps it off in the middle of a field, and goes back to the house with a crossbow. As we get to know John (Ethan McDowell) a little bit better, we also start to learn more about Elizabeth (Kyla Diane Kennedy). It’s clear that John knows a whole lot about her without having really even met her until recently. They’ve got quite a candid way of speaking to each other. Elizabeth is some kind of mysterious, immortal ghost or ghoul of some kind – maybe even a vampire. Whatever she is, it’s no secret to John. Somehow, he knows all about her kind, and instead of being completely & totally terrified like you or I would be in his circumstances, as Elizabeth explains how important it is that she keeps munching on people. So rather than beating around the bush or tiptoeing into the subject, they are able to speak freely to each other and have some really remarkable conversations. Why be all about murdering and drinking blood or whatever it is this demon is up to, when you could have some fun between the sheets with your potential victim first, right? Poor, poor John. He’s in way over his head.
While Writer/Director West Eldredge dials the scares and frights way, way back in comparison to what you’d probably assume of something with a plotline like this, instead, he goes about crafting and creating an authentically interesting tale that will earn your attention through genuinely clever storytelling. The characters are such an impressive strength in “Take From Me” – like, I could seriously sit & listen to John and Elizabeth talk all day long, because the dialogue is really well done and the story seems highly unique. Abe the policeman, Vanessa the dispatch officer – even the guy that stops by to drop something off for Elizabeth seems intriguing as the mystery continues to deepen and we begin to wonder where this is all really going to go. John and Elizabeth are absolutely fascinating. As viewers, we completely get the sense of danger that is attached to their relationship, and it definitely feels like it can only go one way by the time this movie will head into its finale – but at the same time, there’s this small part of us that really starts to root for these two to beat the odds and find a way to coexist, if not end up in a their own meaningful relationship. For as beat up as John has been in his life, he finds purpose with Elizabeth, and it seems like romance is not at all out of the question, for as strange as this dynamic would be. While she appears young and beautiful, let’s be real here – the age imbalance is staggering – Elizabeth would be something like hundreds if not thousands of years old, while John seems like he’d be lucky to make it to fifty one day. Still, while it’s improbable & bizarre – am I the only one that thinks they’re cute together? If you ever watched “Matchstick Men” back in the day, you might remember how Nicolas Cage’s con artist character revealed how you never had to steal if you could get people to give you something instead. I thought about that the first time that John says the words “Take From Me” out loud to Elizabeth, who is in dire straits and trying to fight the hunger inside her. You feel John’s loneliness like a punch in the gut. You respect Elizabeth’s awesome power and the decision she’s making to keep John in her life, but we do have to wonder how long this particular dynamic between them can last. Plus, when you consider the fact that John seems pretty hell-bent on ending his life through his antics of being impaired AF at the end of every night, it feels like it might be best to not get too attached to any of the characters we meet in “Take From Me.” If you know your vampire-based history, and you’re familiar with the character of Renfield, and you know how he became who he ended up becoming, you’ll see some definite similarities in John as he starts to try to help Elizabeth. As to whether or not all the trouble is going to be worth it for him, it’s hard to say – these two spend a lot of time acting like an old married couple. Misguided as he is, you get the sense that there are real feelings involved, and that John has found his way to loving Elizabeth, and though she might seem reluctant, it does feel reciprocal. Is it possible for anyone to survive this story by the end? Can love survive? Is it even love to begin with, or is John just delusional? Elizabeth is a force of nature and a monster that is essentially undefeated by all accounts. Eldredge does an excellent job of wrapping this up, with many of the best scenes all found in the film’s finale. Whether it’s the conclusion of John’s story, or the continuation, depending on how you see it, or the final scenes between Abe (Dwayne A. Thomas) and Elizabeth, Eldredge knew all the right moves to pack in thought-provoking Horror and wrap this story up as tight as tight can be. I loved the cast, I loved the plot, I loved the characters, the dialogue, how it’s shot & filmed…there’s really not anything out of place here. It’ll move slower than you expect it might at first, but that pace leads to a mood & tenor that is irresistibly interesting. This absolutely worked from start to finish if you ask me – I’m going with a very well-deserved four and a half stars outta five – “Take From Me” is freakin’ brilliant. |
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