“THE BUILDOUT is a stunning, genre-bending odyssey into the unknown that skillfully blends themes of mysticism, grief, and the paranormal into a film where reality and the supernatural blur” – says Rotten Tomatoes. THE BUILDOUT hits VOD streaming platforms via Ethos Releasing Tuesday, February 25.
WORD patrons and visitors should know that this reviewer has a quibble here and there. Quibble? This visually gorgeous panoramic doesn’t fit snugly in the reviewer’s aesthetics and perspectives regarding mysticism, paranormal and horror themes and genres – especially the latter, which, for him, means he anticipates being spooked if not freaked, causing him to check the shadows and dark recesses of his psyche. THE BUILDOUT was about as spooky as one of the scenes of one of the film’s stars sniffing a desert flower.
Yet, this is not a thumbs-down-flick rating – not even close. Audiences should anticipate mucho huh-s? and say-what-s? showing up in their conscious, subconscious and unconscious as cinematic centrifugal forces may pull them deeper into the film than they had anticipated.
A Succinct Synopsis
THE BUILDOUT, which has played at the Panic Fest, Popcorn Frights, & Chattanooga film fests, was filmed in Southern California’s Anza-Borrego Desert State Park popularly known, at least regionally, for mysterious and inexplicable phenomena in an area known as the Borrego Triangle. The Triangle is also known for UFO sightings. Real life paranormal researchers coined this description which subsequently heightened interests attracting those intrigued by the extraordinary unordinary.
Plot: Cult Clerics (Natasha Halevi & Michael Sung Ho) are in an advance party for their Clerics group on a 10-day mission to set up a base camp in the remote wasteland of Southern California where they will try to have their spiritual visions realized through meditation exercises.
Michael Sung Ho (Cleric Barrow)
Motorcyclists Dylan (Hannah Alline) and Cameron (Jenna Kenall), the co-stars, visit the Triangle as part of an opportunity to try to rekindle their friendship, which took a beating after the death of Cameron’s older sister, Dakota, played by Danielle Evon Ploeger.
After the motorcyclist arrive in the desert, Cameron, a recovering addict on the mend, supports her friend’s decision but is wary of the cult.
Publicity and marketing as well as other information pretty much bleep, bleep, bleep about the eerie and the weird and the surreal taking place.
Jenna Kanell (Campbell).
Hannah Alline (Dylan)
Director-Writer: Zeshaan Younus
Cinematographer: Justin Moore
Editor: Matt Latham
Music: Jack Bartman
Cast: Jenna Kanell (Campbell), Hannah Alline (Dylan), Natasha Halevi (Cleric Kanner), Danielle Evon Ploeger (Dakota), Michael Sung Ho (Cleric Barrow), Ariel Barber (Barrow’s Vision)
Runtime: 70
Producers: Nicholas Thurkettle, Zeshaan Younus, Trevor Dillon, Sailor Larocque Ethos Releasing.
THE BUILDOUT has the aesthetics of a 360-degree panoramic selfie, giving the audience multitudinous angles, perspectives and views that can be interesting when not fascinating, fascinating primarily because of the superb cinematography. But too much of the film feels weighed down by way too much abstract, enigmatic and metaphorical.
The mind, body and soul will wander in the course of a film if too much ennui sweeps, seeps or creeps in. Cutting to the chase, THE BUILDOUT needs to be about 30 minutes shorter than its current running time. Editing out extraneous scenes of the motorcyclists blitzing across the canvas of a desolate desert, for example, as well as extraneous closeups of characters could turn this film into a humdinger of a slam dunk.
Ethos Releasing is a newly established film distribution company that recently announced its first slate of genre movies for 2025, including sci-fi drama, found footage, mystery thrillers, and horror films. Producer Noah Lang is its founder.
Editor, Reviewer Gregg W. Morris