Watch The Season

Horror and gore always highlight the frustrations of mainstream movie makers. The Season (2010) is a classic, yet inventive horror film that first, pulls the audience away from the CG sets of Hollywood. Second, it can never be described as boring or sophomoric. Third, it is the perfect date movie that pays homage to the past; not with story lines and characters, but with fun shock, and menacingly in-your-face grossness.

The Season is best classified as independent, but is crafted well enough to always be entertaining and never seemingly quickly edited. Because of obvious budgetary constraints, some of the production and direction crew also have parts in the movie. Normally, this would detract from the quality, but the creative crew is experienced enough to portray vivid and believable characters that convey a wide swath of emotional maturity.

The Season is set in rural Iowa, near a "held over" Amish community that supplements it's lifestyle with the proprietorship of a small mercantile. They put on an "authentic face" until they happen to receive customers that suit their idea of perfect genetic mates. As the Amish community becomes more intent on holding the unaware tourist troupe captive fodder for breeding, they reveal more and more of their true intent.

The movie blends incredible Midwestern Americana scenery, with initial innocence and old-fashioned determinism. Eventually, the film successfully descends into gore, horror, pitchforks, light pornographic torture, violence, fire, gun battles, and a secret supernatural, inbred monstrosity that is unique to the silver screen. The only setback to The Season is its disappointing length. It brings the audience to a seat-wetting, stomach-upsetting pinnacle, but fails to completely throw onlookers over the edge. Undoubtedly, this film will cause many boyfriends to endure fingernail digs on their arms from the tension of their dates. Oh yeah, The Season is gross, but fun!

The entire cast is anchored with relatively unknown actors and actresses, but they are conscientiously chosen. The one actress that will certainly gain wide recognition from her portrayal as the main Amish innocent Esther, is Julianne Mason. This actress is strikingly beautiful, but has the reserve to accurately play a truly convincing Amish woman. She is plain, but completely steals all of the audience's attention. Julianne is also an Iowa native, so she had special insight into embodying her role.

The Season was a hit at Screamfest and is widely considered one of the best-constructed horror films of the past decade. It is sure to please any movie enthusiast that loves, blood, grit, grime, history, sensuality, dark humor, supernatural exploration and…cornfields!