Low-budget, religious-themed drama, expanded from the short film "Redeeming Daniel", concerns obstinate, quick-tempered Eli, a young man returned home to his family after a stint in the service who immediately butts heads with his rancher father. Since he's also at odds with both his mother and his wife--who won't allow him to tuck their four-year old into bed anymore--Eli gets drunk and drives off into the mountains, where he has a religious epiphany following an accident in his truck. Writer-director Shawn Justice apparently had a need to make this film, and he does have a message of faith to get across if you wait him out, but he displays no visible talent handling his actors (his dialogue is negligible as well). As a grizzled, mellow fellow camping out in the woods with his dog, Graham Greene arrives an hour into the proceedings and manages to give the production a little polish, but lead actor Adam Elliott Davis is embarrassing standing in a leaf-storm howling up at the sky. A filmmaker with some cinematic savvy might have given us more sides to Eli instead of just this stubborn cuss who pushes everyone away, but Justice is too determined to point out the obvious--that giving ourselves to God strengthens us--and forgets that movies are meant to entertain as well as enlighten. *1/2 from ****
3 Reviews
The Magic Forest
bkoganbing20 June 2020
Young Adam Elliott Davis is a rather shiftless sort of man whose parents and girlfriend don't think he's realizing his full potential. One night he drives off an
embankment Into what I can only call a magic forest.
It's quite a place filled with all kinds of illusions and characters representing good and evil battling for his soul. It's all quite silly as well.
Supposedly this is based on the story of Jonah and the whale. But I don't think Jonah would have minded the forest. Being undigested in a whale's is its own brand of torture.
Anyway this cheaply shot film is too dull in spots to be entertaining or delver its message successfully.
It's quite a place filled with all kinds of illusions and characters representing good and evil battling for his soul. It's all quite silly as well.
Supposedly this is based on the story of Jonah and the whale. But I don't think Jonah would have minded the forest. Being undigested in a whale's is its own brand of torture.
Anyway this cheaply shot film is too dull in spots to be entertaining or delver its message successfully.
Unfinished Business
oakiwan7 May 2017
Warning: Spoilers
SPOILER WARNING:
I watched Out of the Darkness and even sat through parts of it more than once. I don't see how this movie could have had a budget of half a million. It used stock footage and the forest scenes looked like they sat on a trail and started to roll. Sure there was water nearby but it sure as heck sounded like cars at times instead of a "mysterious" place.
I could only tell that this was a "Jonah" movie because that was how the movie described itself. I knew instantly that it was a Christian movie because it was clearly miscast and had a deep, deliberate sense of shame throughout. Due to the unprofessional editing, and first draft quality of the screenplay the story is kind of confusing because it uses token dream sequences, memory sequences and throws in a time cut to make matters worse.
The main character (the guy who is supposedly running from God) does nothing but endure constant rejection and harsh words from literally every single person he meets in the movie!! His father is a jerk (who cannot act) who constantly berates his son, accuses him of being drunk in public even when the son explains that he had a single beer, and the father raises his voice throughout the movie at him, yet criticizes the son when he raises his voice back. The mother (who is nowhere near old enough to be his mother) continues the mistreatment and shaming.
To make matters worse this film does NOTHING to bring the family back together at the end. Had the father apologized or softened his stance I wouldn't have even written this review, instead we get a "vision" of the father telling his son that he shouldn't have even been born. Sorry, that is emotional abuse. The father is wrong. Fathers should NOT provoke their sons to wrath. The entire movie the father breaks the bruised reed. This Jonah is the only straight thinking person in the whole movie. And I feel that way because the screenplay FAILED to show any behavior that would the main character deserve to be rejected by both his parent figures and have to endure a Jonah in the wilderness experience. A better screenplay would have the man cheating on his wife, shooting up, getting in fights instead of the rated G errors the guy made.
I kinda wonder what world view the writer has when EVERY single scene with a parent is one of severe shaming, berating, insulting and rejecting. The main character is rejected over and over and over again in this movie. And it is confusing and miserable to watch the main character be gas-lighted into believing that he is the problem.
I also find it odd to suggest that God is a God of love when he takes this man and then subjects him to cold, wet, hunger, thirst, isolation, fear, injury and even attacks from a mysterious threat. Oh, but he loves you. That is abuse. Not love. The upright Christians in the movie are cold, demanding, legalistic, instantly judgmental and get off completely free. But if you have a cigarette or a beer then you are worthy of scorn, public shame and being cast out until you change your ways. THAT is the message of this movie. That love must be earned. That acceptance is conditional, that fear and shame are useful tools to keep you in line.
Also, the writer outright stole some stuff from the far superior Blair Witch Project, as I can already tell he did in the The Reconciler movie from the movie SAW. Having spent the night in the woods I cannot, for the life of me understand how this movie could make the woods so UNSCARY looking.
The movie fails to tie up a lot of unfinished business. The opening war scene (which looked like it was filmed behind a shed) had literally NOTHING to do with the rest of the movie. And it worked against the Jonah plot. It showed the main character being brave, attentive, and fighting for a cause. Seriously, what a wasted opening. In the VERY next scene we see the main character playing the country bumpkin routine and being fired by his stern father. You can get whiplash trying to adjust to the jarring change.
And, it begs to be said.......seriously.....did you have to pick an actor to play a country bumpkin farmer who obviously has his ears gaped? Seriously! It was never mentioned. And it was quite obvious. I figured that Mr. and Mrs. Cold Christian Parents were going to mention it. That they were glad that he took out his ear gauges? In fact, in one scene the sun is clearly shining through the hole. But no mention of this.
Nothing about the guy seemed like he was running away from the call of God on his life. It more seemed like he was wounded by cold, judgmental people. Had the screenplay not felt like such a first draft, and had been given more structural criticism then these flaws might have been noticed and corrected.
This is a message movie with a muddled yet still toxic message. Love is conditional and rationed. Criticism and rejection comes in spades. God uses fear and rejection to control people.
I watched Out of the Darkness and even sat through parts of it more than once. I don't see how this movie could have had a budget of half a million. It used stock footage and the forest scenes looked like they sat on a trail and started to roll. Sure there was water nearby but it sure as heck sounded like cars at times instead of a "mysterious" place.
I could only tell that this was a "Jonah" movie because that was how the movie described itself. I knew instantly that it was a Christian movie because it was clearly miscast and had a deep, deliberate sense of shame throughout. Due to the unprofessional editing, and first draft quality of the screenplay the story is kind of confusing because it uses token dream sequences, memory sequences and throws in a time cut to make matters worse.
The main character (the guy who is supposedly running from God) does nothing but endure constant rejection and harsh words from literally every single person he meets in the movie!! His father is a jerk (who cannot act) who constantly berates his son, accuses him of being drunk in public even when the son explains that he had a single beer, and the father raises his voice throughout the movie at him, yet criticizes the son when he raises his voice back. The mother (who is nowhere near old enough to be his mother) continues the mistreatment and shaming.
To make matters worse this film does NOTHING to bring the family back together at the end. Had the father apologized or softened his stance I wouldn't have even written this review, instead we get a "vision" of the father telling his son that he shouldn't have even been born. Sorry, that is emotional abuse. The father is wrong. Fathers should NOT provoke their sons to wrath. The entire movie the father breaks the bruised reed. This Jonah is the only straight thinking person in the whole movie. And I feel that way because the screenplay FAILED to show any behavior that would the main character deserve to be rejected by both his parent figures and have to endure a Jonah in the wilderness experience. A better screenplay would have the man cheating on his wife, shooting up, getting in fights instead of the rated G errors the guy made.
I kinda wonder what world view the writer has when EVERY single scene with a parent is one of severe shaming, berating, insulting and rejecting. The main character is rejected over and over and over again in this movie. And it is confusing and miserable to watch the main character be gas-lighted into believing that he is the problem.
I also find it odd to suggest that God is a God of love when he takes this man and then subjects him to cold, wet, hunger, thirst, isolation, fear, injury and even attacks from a mysterious threat. Oh, but he loves you. That is abuse. Not love. The upright Christians in the movie are cold, demanding, legalistic, instantly judgmental and get off completely free. But if you have a cigarette or a beer then you are worthy of scorn, public shame and being cast out until you change your ways. THAT is the message of this movie. That love must be earned. That acceptance is conditional, that fear and shame are useful tools to keep you in line.
Also, the writer outright stole some stuff from the far superior Blair Witch Project, as I can already tell he did in the The Reconciler movie from the movie SAW. Having spent the night in the woods I cannot, for the life of me understand how this movie could make the woods so UNSCARY looking.
The movie fails to tie up a lot of unfinished business. The opening war scene (which looked like it was filmed behind a shed) had literally NOTHING to do with the rest of the movie. And it worked against the Jonah plot. It showed the main character being brave, attentive, and fighting for a cause. Seriously, what a wasted opening. In the VERY next scene we see the main character playing the country bumpkin routine and being fired by his stern father. You can get whiplash trying to adjust to the jarring change.
And, it begs to be said.......seriously.....did you have to pick an actor to play a country bumpkin farmer who obviously has his ears gaped? Seriously! It was never mentioned. And it was quite obvious. I figured that Mr. and Mrs. Cold Christian Parents were going to mention it. That they were glad that he took out his ear gauges? In fact, in one scene the sun is clearly shining through the hole. But no mention of this.
Nothing about the guy seemed like he was running away from the call of God on his life. It more seemed like he was wounded by cold, judgmental people. Had the screenplay not felt like such a first draft, and had been given more structural criticism then these flaws might have been noticed and corrected.
This is a message movie with a muddled yet still toxic message. Love is conditional and rationed. Criticism and rejection comes in spades. God uses fear and rejection to control people.
See also
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