Christopher Denham won acclaim on the festival circuit back in 2008 with his found footage thriller Home Movie. For his sophomore effort, Denham takes on survival horror with Preservation, which feels a bit like You’re Next by way of The Strangers. But while You’re Next was overtly comic, Preservation‘s humor is much more uncomfortable and actually serves to raise tension, rather than release it. It’s final girl also lacks the survival skills of Sharni Vinson’s character and must fight tooth and claw, relying on primal instincts to get by as masked assailants play out their murderous blood sport.
For a horror film, Preservation also takes a unique approach to cellphones. Meaning, they work. Four bars and everything. Technology and its absence is a theme presented early on in the film, as recently returned veteran Sean Neary is repulsed by his brother Mike’s dependence on his cellphone. Mike’s wife Wit is also annoyed by her husband’s phone being attached to his face all to the time, to the point where it’s affecting their relationship.
Denham gives his character’s a lot of room in the beginning of the film to establish themselves and their relationships, which pays off nicely later on. They travel into the forest for a hunting/camping trip, though the thought of killing an animal turns vegan Wit’s stomach. Sean (The Wire‘s Pable Schreiber) is the consummate huntsman, whose PTSD is just beginning to show. Mike (Aaron Staton) has been neglecting his wife, allowing his business to consume his life. Wit (Wrenn Schmidt) is hoping the trip will rekindle their romance as she prepares to make a big announcement to Mike.
As if tension between them wasn’t already thick enough, they awake the following morning to find all of their belongings gone and Xs drawn on their foreheads. The Xs are such a creepy touch. What follows could easily be a run-of-the-mill stalk and slash thriller set in the woods. How many times have we seen that? Thankfully, Denham knows his horror films and defies the traditional beats of the genre that would typically follow such an introduction.
Besides its refreshing path of direction, Preservation also sports one of the most impressive and sympathetic final girls in a while. Wrenn Schmidt, probably best known as Julia Sagorsky on Boardwalk Empire, morphs her character from a big softie who can’t shoot a deer to a primal killer, drenched in dirt and blood but with wide eyes, like the remaining humanity inside her can’t believe the savagery she’s committing. Early on in the film she admits, “I’m not really the hunting type.” By the time the final shot rolls over our eyeballs, she’s a force of nature. And believe me, the final shot is amazing and grotesque – it manages to create nervous laughs while making you do a small fist pump at its implications (think the iconic final shot of Death Wish).
The film isn’t without its faults. Early on there are some heavy-handed allusions to the myth of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, which foreshadows Wit’s baptism in blood. It’s appropriate in the hunting context that kicks off the film, but feels ham-fisted presented the way it is. More so because Denham is great at writing dialogue, so the piece about Artemis comes off as a shoddily inserted bit aimed at giving the story mythological implications. It’s unnecessary and doesn’t advance the film in any meaningful way. (Without spoiling anything) there’s a set piece during the final act that threatens to shatter the consistently dreadful tone of the film as well, but Denham quickly recovers for the climax.
Preservation is one of those films you go into expecting the expected. A stalk and slash film in the woods in which an innocent girls faces off against masked assailants – seen it before. But with Denham’s new film, he manages to appropriate tropes from the survival genre and deliver his own bloody beast. It’s a wholly satisfying and chilling thriller that says something about society without shoving its message in our face. A violent and beautiful film, Preservation proves Denham is one to watch. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait another seven years for his next effort.