Lost Gully Road
Lost Gully Road Reviewed by Simone Cromer
Lucy (Adele Perovic) is a young woman driving to an isolated cabin her sister Cassie rented for them for a week. Lucy arrives there first, expecting her sister to come very soon. She’s greeted by the overly friendly landlady (Jane Clifton), who assures Lucy that “this place looks after itself.” There is no TV, so Lucy’s isolation would appear to be compounded. Upon getting settled in, Lucy calls Cassie, who tells her that she is unable to arrive as expected, and she instructs Lucy to stay off the phone and don’t go on Facebook. Lucy is hiding from an abusive boyfriend, and she needs to go off the grid for her safety. But, is this house safe for her?
By the second day of her stay, Lucy notices strange things going on at the house. Furniture has been moved around without her knowledge. Flowers suddenly appear, and the fireplace is lit, giving the cabin a welcoming feeling. Though it’s all strange, she likes the delicate touches of hospitality, for now. Lucy calls her sister again, but Cassie makes up another excuse that she can’t get away, and this frustrates Lucy, which leads her to take larger doses of her medication and drink more alcohol. She drives into town to get more food and wine, and she encounters a creepy shopkeeper who seems to know already that she’s staying at the cabin. He seductively offers that he can make deliveries of whatever she needs.
Another day passes, and strange things continue to go on in the house. Perovic portrays Lucy as a woman on edge and filled with self-doubt, suspicious of others, so she’s vulnerable to the activities that occur in the cabin. With her sister still not there, Lucy celebrates her birthday and opens herself up entirely to the sinister force that is within that cabin. As a desperate woman in need of love and she places herself in a dangerous position. Director Donna McRae uses the horror genre to show how easy it is to be manipulated at our most vulnerable times in life.
Just as things become violent and horrifying, the shopkeeper delivers groceries for Lucy, and he senses that she’s frightened. He knows why she’s scared and offers to help her leave, but she doesn’t trust him and tells him to go. What comes next for Lucy is reminiscent of what happens in The Entity (1983), it’s truly horrific.
Directed and written by Donna McRae, Lost Gully Road is a quiet slow-burner thriller that climaxes into terrifying moments in the second half. It is a good ghost story with an eerie finale.
Available on DVD and Digital December 3 from Wild Eye Releasing, the “gothic-tinged Aussie ghost story” (Filmink) stars Adele Perovic (The Code), Jane Clifton (Beast), and John Brumpton (The Loved Ones), with a mesmerizing musical score by Clare Moore and Dave Graney.
