I’ve been in a bit of a drought recently with finding things worth watching. So many really bad things are being made these days.I hadn’t heard of Black Rock, but it sounded interesting.

The set up has Sara trying to reconnect with her friend group from she was younger. Setting up a weekend excursion but not letting them know the plan. Louise and Abby don’t really get along. To the point where neither of them want to go and both are willing to back out of the weekend. Sara convinces them. The three of them head out to an island they used to hang out on and plan to dig up a time capsule they had buried. We do find out that Louise and Abby had a disagreement over a boy. Seems Louise slept with Abby’s boyfriend. Ooops.

While on the island, they discover they aren’t alone. Henry, Derek, and Alex are hunting. They all hang out a bit, and then Abby and Henry go off to make out. Henry goes further than she wants, but won’t stop. It pushes to the point of rape. Abby retaliates by grabbing a rock and hitting him in the head. The conflict brings everyone to them. 

Derek and Alex are pissed and it turns into a very short fight where the two guys beat the women and tie them up.

At this point things are obviously escalating. When the women come to, the guys are discussing killing them. Derek wants to. Alex is dissenting. The women manage to get away by splitting up. With only two guys, they can’t chase all three of them.

Eventually the women meet back up. A plan is formed to try and get to the boat, but the guys have pushed it away from the beach. When they try, Sara is shot in the head by Derek.

Eventually things get wilder as the guys seem to be all in on the idea of killing all three women.

At this point I am a bit confused about their plan. Because with Henry dead, it will be investigated. And the women being dead isn’t going to end well. But the answer to that is actually pretty easy. It’s a crime of passion, to a degree. The passion being the bond of friendship with Henry dying. But man, Derek actually broke. His moment of a crime of passion was a record with a scratch that is stuck on a groove. Jay Paulson is the actor who played Derek. He does such a good job in his mania. As the story  comes to the climax it is the two girls and Derek. The mania in Derek’s eyes is disturbing.

This is a revenge story in the tradition of I Spit On Your Grave. It was gripping. Had me fully engaged once the action kicked in. It did take a bit to get moving, but I feel it was worth the wait. There was an interesting bit of nudity, but in a reasonable way. After two of the girls had tried swimming to the boat, they turned back towards land. But they were now in freezing wet clothing. Removing them and having exposed skin would be warmer than wearing the wet clothing. And they did a reasonable job of keeping it fairly non-gratuitous. I attribute that to the female director Katie Aselton. Someone who has done more acting than behind the camera work, but has been working in the industry for over a decade.

Interestingly, some of the digs against this talk about the female characters being bad stereotypes. I don’t recall having any thoughts along those lines as I watched it. And I trust my memory on that, because I started writing this as soon as the movie ended. If anything, I would say the macho hunter ex-military dudes slipped into stereotypical territory.

I don’t think this movie will reach the cult status that I Spit achieved, but that is only because of the era it was released. If this movie was released back in the 80’s, I feel like it would have been the sort of movie held in high regard like I Spit and Last House on the Left. 

I’m rolling with an 8 on this. It is absolutely worth checking out.