The free movie we have for this week’s Friday Fright Nights feature is the cult horror story This Land. Check it out!
A full Free Movie of the Day is posted on the JoBlo Horror Movies YouTube channel every other day during the week – but on Fridays things get even freakier and a little more fun. Get your weekend started the right way by indulging in Friday Fright Nights! Every Friday, we’ll be taking a look at another genre movie you can watch in its entirety, free of charge, either on the YouTube channel linked above or in the video embed here.
The Friday Fright Night feature we have for you this week is This Land, a horror film that gets its title from the folk song “This Land Is Your Land”, which Woody Guthrie first wrote back in 1940, when he was tired of hearing the Kate Smith rendition of “God Bless America” on the radio all the time. And as you might expect from a film that has a title origin story like that, and which features the stars and stripes on its promotional artwork, there is a bit of a political angle to This Land.
The story centers on two families who are from different walks of life and have different viewpoints finding that they’ve been double-booked at the isolated cabin in the woods they’ve both decided to spend the Fourth of July holiday at. (Don’t let the shots of fall-like foliage keep you from suspending your disbelief enough to buy into this being set in July.) They decide to roll with the booking mistake and spend the holiday together… but they don’t do so without butting heads. About an hour of this movie’s running time plays like a drama about people with different politics trying to live in peace with each other. It’s a serious take on All in the Family. But don’t worry, there’s some creepy stuff going on as well.
If you’re looking for action, you’ll have to wait a while. Following the violent opening scene, there’s a long stretch of movie dedicated to dialogue scenes and character work. But hold on, there is pay-off. As it turns out, the title This Land has a double meaning – it’s not just a reference to the Guthrie song. It also works for the story because the cabin these families have chosen to stay on happens to sit on land where a cult operates. And this cult has decided it’s time to make some human sacrifices to a god called The Flayed One. Because of this cult, the last 40 minutes or so of This Land are pretty well action-packed.
Directed by Richard Greenwood Jr. from a screenplay written by Leon Langford and Collin Watts, This Land has the following synopsis: A traumatized mother agrees to a rustic getaway on the 4th of July with her husband and son in hopes of putting back the pieces of their lives after a violent home invasion cost her a child exactly one year to the date. However, after arriving at the cabin rental they realize they’re double booked with a family with very different political beliefs. As tensions boil over the weekend as they confront grief, race, and the divide within the country – they soon realize there’s something else out here trying to drive them apart. They must band together to drive off a sinister group of elites with unknown intentions in an isolated cabin.
The film stars Natalie Whittle, Adam Burch, John J. Pistone, Mindy Montavon, Jerod Powers, Taylor Joree Scorse, Garret Camilleri, Zhongyi Bai, Shaun Boylan, Anthony Cook, Jay Dersahagian, Sean Fau-Burnitz, Khira Layne, Philip Orazio, Matt Pick, Gabe Rios, Rob Shiells, Brynn Sicard, Matthew Vey, Bowen Watts, Omark Zaki, and co-writer Collin Watts.
Greenwood made his feature directorial debut with This Land after more than a decade of making short films and working as a cinematographer. He got his feature career off to a solid start with this movie, and I look forward to seeing what he’s going to do after this.
So take a look at This Land – it’s free! – and let us know what you thought of it by leaving a comment below or on the YouTube page.
Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/friday-fright-nights-this-land/
