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It’s 1969 in Virginia and a group of young adults Jordan (Cristen Coppen), Boone (Kiko
Ellsworth), Trish (Paula Rhodes), Raina (Christine Carlo) and Cole (David Rountree) are
hitching there way over to Washington D.C to attend a protest rally about the Vietnam
war. A guy named Quintin (Charlie Bodin) offers to give them all a lift in his truck, only
a few miles up the road the truck overheats causing the engine to cease. The group
sets off on foot to bunk in a barn on an old secluded farmhouse in the woods. In the
morning they are all greeted by a sinister southern family, a bow-legged mother Louise
(Kathy Lamkin) who likes to eat (human) meat and a moonshine drinking wheelchair-
bound grandma Geraldine (Sherry Weston) who enjoys zapping things with her electric
handheld cow prodder and a retarded scared face Buddy (B.J. Hendricks) who has a
fascination with dolls, sharp objects and blood.
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No comment as the video quality on a screener is for viewing purposes only.
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No comment as the sound quality on a screener is for viewing purposes only.
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No extras are presented on screeners.
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First off I’d like to say I have never heard of Cameron Romero until I reviewed this
film. According to his IMDB profile, Staunton is not his first film but his third as the two
previous titles (I also never heard of) Cameron directed was Plant Life (1995) and The
Screening (2007). Well they say you learn something knew every day, I guess this is my
knowledge highlight for the day. Cameron Romero’s Staunton Hill will never succeed in
ever becoming a masterpiece like his old man’s Night of the Living Dead (1958) but
least the guy remembered to copyright his film. Though like father like son, Cameron
did forget to add Barbara Divisek, who cast the film, was unintentionally left out of
the closing film credits and in the opening film credits, "Psycho Rock Productions" is
misspelled as "Psychorock.".
Sadly, Staunton Hill, has nothing to do with zombies at all, surprisingly Cameron
decided to take a different route and pays a homage to another fantastic filmmaker,
Tobe Hooper and his 1974 cult classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Though their was
one scene where the characters talk about Night of the Living Dead, which was nice
of Cameron to do….then again maybe it was just a quick a reminder that he was
George A Romero’s son. Who knows!!!!
But what gets me is ..Why is it that, every fucking film that contains a group of kids
travelling into the woods, only ends up of them all being hung, drawn and quartered
for barbequed by some inbred family? Well like ever other film screenplay writer
David Rountree (who happened to star in the film as character Quintin.. go figure)
writes another predictable/boring screenplay, where the plot is a regurgitation to
every other backwoods redneck cannibalism/torture film. Most of all I feel bad for the
actors having to take on a weak screenplay as the characters are so damn predictable,
you’ll feel like you have already see this film before. It’s not until the last 20 minutes
that the film actually begins to be somewhat enjoyable.
Many of the actors who took part in the film, kind of look new to acting scene. Actress
Kathy Lamkin who is a very familiar face from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and
in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) as the Tea Lady, played a solid
performance, though (I mean this with no disrespect) many times due to her size or
maybe suffering from bad knees, I couldn’t help to think she was restricted to doing
things with the character she portrayed. The actor who stole the spotlight would
actually have to do to Kiko Ellsworth who played Boone, as his character had to watch
his girlfriend he loved get gutted and scalped on a table by Buddy played by B.J.
Hendricks.
The gore factor is fairly bare, as you get to see a few dismemberments and
impalement scene, buddy yanks out someone’s intestines, being skinned/scalped alive,
a cool shotgun to the knee cap scene followed up with litres of that icky red stuff
oozing/gushing out of wounds and not to mention a broken nose.
This would have to be the first backwoods slasher film that didn’t happen to contain
any nudity or much foul language. What would I’d of give to have seen a full nude or
even a topless scene from either actress Cristen Coppen or Paula Rhodes. [sighs]
Cameron Romero has some big shoes to fill if he wants to try and step out of his
father’s (George A Romero) shadow. Staunton Hill is an enjoyable B-Grade Horror
movie that hopefully one day we all can look back on and compare to his recent work.
So even though a film wears the Romero name, sadly Staunton Hill will only ever be a
low-budget imitation of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Only those who are hardcore
indie fans and Cameron Romero fans will ever appreciate this film, fingers cross little
Romero gets a few pointers from good old dad in his next film.
Staunton Hill is currently available as a rental from the 7th of March throughout all DVD
rental stores. A DVD release date has not yet been mentioned.
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