Bad Turn Worse A Turn for the Better

This understated indie film starts off slow, but develops in short order into a startling and disturbing series of twisted twists.

Sue (Mackenzie Davis, THAT AWKWARD MOMENT) is a girl of books, and she's preparing to head off to college. Her close friend Bobby (Jeremy Allen White, SHAMELESS) is going with her, but that's a secret few people in the town know. They are leaving behind the third person in their troupe, B.J. (Logan Huffman, V), who decides he's going to see the two of them off with a wild night of partying and a bundle of cash he's saved up.

The problem is, B.J. didn't save up the cash, but stole it from his boss, Giff (Mark Pellegrino, BEING HUMAN, SUPERNATURAL), and Giff is a moral vacuum. After demonstrating just how deadly serious he is about the missing cash, he then extorts the three into a much larger crime -- stealing from his boss, Big Red (William Devane, 24, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES), a gangster with a money laundering operation in this speck of a Texas town.

From that point on, nothing is simple, and you're constantly getting new information from different corners that inform the overall story. It's not until the climax of the story that you get a complete image of everyone's role, a puzzle completion not totally unlike that of THE USUAL SUSPECTS. Pellegrino is absolutely terrifying as the sociapathic Griff, and there's a brief but pivotal appearance by Jon Gries (THE PRETENDER, LOST) as the local sheriff that underscores the hopelessness of the teens' situation.

BAD TURN WORSE is rural noir at its finest, and one that ought to be on your list of films you need to watch this year.