When Owen is forced to reconnect with his only living relatives, confront the past he's been running from his whole adult life, he and his girlfriend, Isabel, learn that sometimes the ties that bind can cut off all circulation.
At least it's a good-looking orgy of adolescent nihilism, thanks to some clever stylistic touches from Bates and cinematographer Shane Daly. And if hating everyone is kind of your thing, you might get a kick out of it.
Bates Jr. brings a satisfying level of disturbance to the effort, keeping the audience sufficiently unnerved even with unknown turns of plot, while sustaining its rather lucid take on a terrible relationship.
the hyperreal focus here is on domestic and psychological dysfunction, with an only eventually likeable protagonist unable to put conflict with his family's previous generation(s) behind him.
Another soggy batch of Southern Gothic horror-comedy from writer-director Richard Bates Jr. that spews out pitch black smoke with little combustible substance.
With two low-budget cult films among his credits, Richard Bates, Jr. shifts a bit closer to the mainstream with Trash Fire, a relatively reserved horror-comedy that delves into darkly dysfunctional family secrets.
Bates plays with horror tropes, juggling black comedy and suspense in scenes that tease a gory release but ultimately only emphasize how much members of the creative class can underestimate their backward kin.
