The Curse of Buckout Road (2017) Review

The Curse of Buckout Road (2017) Review

The Curse of Buckout Road follows a college class, whose project on the destruction of modern myth turns deadly when a trio of students discover that a series of horrific urban legends surrounding New York state’s famed Buckout Road may actually be true.

The film opens with a quote credited to Fran Capo which reads ‘There’s a part of Westchester, New York that you would be smart to avoid especially at night. That area is Buckout Road…home to every kind of urban legend imaginable.’ I’ve no idea who Fran Capo actually is so I couldn’t gage whether it really held any weight so right from the word go THE CURSE OF BUCKOUT ROAD felt like it was playing to a home ground. And it continued to do so. This may play well to those familiar with or local to the area but I was left cold.

I found much of the film aggravating. Tonally the movie was all over the shop and I ended up feeling disappointed after reading rave reviews for the film online. I can now only imagine that people associated with the making of the film, or even their friends and family, may have drummed up the praise-heavy reviews online, as everything they raved about flies in the face of what I actually witnessed. If the reviews had been more honest perhaps I would have approached this differently instead of expecting a corker.

There’s also that other internet curse of those film sites that rabidly crave an online/cover/poster quote and will say whatever they feel they need to just to boost their online profile. Watching the likes of Danny Glover, Henry Czerny and Colm Feore was fine – in fact the film picked up considerably every time they appeared onscreen; however their wealth of experience in front of the camera only highlighted inconsistencies in acting styles/experience with the younger cast members which added further to the film’s tonal muddle.