Movies
[BD Review] Stare into the Abyss of Peter Billingsley’s Rosy Cheeks in ‘Death Valley’
Review by Patrick Cooper
Director Dick Richards only helmed seven movies during his career. Not a lot, but he managed to cover a lot of genre territory along the way. Wedged in between a war epic and a family melodrama is 1982’s obscure horror-thriller Death Valley. The film follows Billy, a young city boy on a reluctant trip to the west. His mom forces him to go so she can soften him up to her new boyfriend, who’s pretty much the opposite of Billy’s intellectual biological father. It’s more thriller than horror and Richards manages to infuse it with some nice western aesthetics. And now the folks at Scream Factory have dropped this obscure little film onto Blu-ray and DVD for the first time. Prepare to stare into the abyss of Peter Billingsley’s rosy cheeks in HD…
A pre-Christmas Story Billingsley stars as Billy. We first meet him during the film’s whimsical prologue as he roams around Manhattan with his dad (Edward Herrmann – The Lost Boys), doing academic shit like playing chess and going to book stores. This NYC montage is in sharp contrast to where we see Billy next: stepping out of an airport in Arizona, looking like they just put his dog to sleep. He has no interest in Arizona, or the desert, or his mom’s new boyfriend, Mike (Paul Le Mat – Puppetmaster). Mike doesn’t seem all that interested in Billy either. He’s a total dick to him behind his back, rolling his eyes whenever Billy opens his mouth looking really off-put by Billy’s intelligence.
While stopped in Death Valley, mom and Mike let Billy wander around the desert by himself. I’m sure Mike was hoping the kid would get lost and never be heard from again. But instead Billy comes across a motor home where a triple murder just occurred. This is where Death Valley really starts to pick up. The killer, Hal, starts stalking Billy’s family around the desert. We know who the killer is pretty early on because he’s wearing the same frog necklace MacGuffin Billy finds in the motor home.
It’s Stephen McHattie! That creepy guy who looks like Lance Henriksen! There are some pretty great set pieces between Billy and Hal. The best is in an old west museum where Hal has a bandana on so Billy thinks he’s part of the show. See, it’s one of those living museums where people dress up in period costume and talk to you so you feel super awkward. Billy calls him “Black Bart” – that’s two movies in a row Billingsley calls someone “Black Bart”! Pretty thought-provoking film criticism, I know.
Wilfred Brimley plays the sheriff and is as amazing as always. That guy has such incredible, stoic presence. Throw a cowboy hat and a badge on him and game over, pal. You can shove your diabetes jokes up you ass. Show some respect for Brimley’s greatness.
Then there’s the scene with the babysitter. Ho-lee shit. Billy’s family leaves him alone in a hotel room with this babysitter who looks like a bigger version of that fat blonde kid from Trick ‘r Treat who hose-vomits chocolate. And it’s a girl. As Billy watches television, she eyeballs a bunch of snacks that are sitting on the TV stand. There’s a Twinkie, a Mr. Goodbar, and some chips. This scene goes on forever. It’s baffling and hilarious. Richards makes us watch this girl in real-time drool over the snacks, ask if she can eat the snacks, then she eats the snacks, then she folds up the wrappers super loud, and uses them as a napkin. It goes on for like five minutes and miraculously it doesn’t impede the suspense building. If anything it makes you more on edge because you can’t wait for this girl to get killed! She even sticks her little sausage fingers in Billy’s ice cream! Ah!
The climactic twist is predictable but pulled off really well. The ending is pretty tense and the entire movie builds up to it nicely. I was hoping Billy’s real dad would show up and save the day though. He could’ve not only stopped Hal, but also smack Mike around for being a dick to his son. It’s fun to imagine the phone call the mom had to make to Billy’s dad, telling him all about how a serial killer almost murdered the kid. I bet Billy’s dad won the custody battle after this.
On Scream Factory’s Facebook page, people have expressed worry that the company is cranking these sets out too fast – that they won’t be able to keep up the quality of A/V and special features. I’ve got faith in them though. I’m sure resources for Death Valley were pretty slim, but they still managed to put together a set that’s worth your hard-earned money. And a lot of people, including myself, never even heard of this movie before Scream Factory announced it. So I say keep ‘em coming.
A/V
Scream Factory presents Death Valley in 1080p 1.78:1 widescreen. The transfer’s got a few specks and scratches but otherwise looks fantastic. The bright colors of the desert contrast crisply with the nighttime scenes. Like I mentioned earlier, Billingsley’s chubby rosy cheeks are hypnotizing. The 5.1 track sounds fine.
Special Features
Audio commentary with director Dick Richards, moderated by Edwin Samuelson of AV Maniacs: Richards talks about the development of the film. He explains how he wanted to make one film in every genre, but he’s bummed he never made a musical. He considers Death Valley to be more of thriller than horror, and I’d have to agree. He’s says some pretty funny stuff about Billingsley – how he was a 40-yr-old trapped in a little kid’s body. He calls him “all business.” Samuelson tries to dig deeper and keep the conversation going, but Richards doesn’t seem to remember a lot (he’s pretty old now).
Trailer and TV spot
DVD copy for all you cavemen
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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