The Bad Shepherd Review
The Bad Shepherd is the latest thriller from Geo Santini (After the Reign) and is set for its UK debut on 22 April courtesy of Scatena & Rosner Films.
The film begins strong, as a woman drives through a secluded wooded area, she looks like she’s been through the wars and may be escaping someone, domestic violence perhaps? Then it all goes a bit “Wrong Turn” as she runs over a nail, which looks planted, and bursts a tyre.
With no spare, she grabs the big bag which must be her hastily packed belongings and starts a slow, limpy walk off down the road.
Then four friends out on a hunting trip carelessly splat her with their truck.
They grab her bag and it’s, as has been made famous by many a heist gone wrong movie, full of cash. She’s also been shot, so they realise this isn’t just her rainy day cash.
What to do? Call the police of course!
Nah, let’s wrap her in a tarp and stick her in the back of the truck and keep the cash.
Obviously things have taken a slightly dark turn and when a police officer turns up, things get even deadlier and they go further down this dangerous path.
Friendships fray and decisions are questioned, then the guy who the money belongs to turns up and wants his cash back, or maybe just the nice bag, who knows? Anyway, he’s very polite and not very happy they won’t give him the bag back.
That’s as far as I’ll go into the story as to say much else would be spoilery, and we don’t do that round these parts.
So, The Bad Shepherd is a film of three halves. I was never too good at maths.
The film starts really strongly, sags and drags in the middle and then picks up again for the most painfully underutilised ending.
You’ll probably figure out what’s going on fairly quickly but the ending may throw a slight curveball and even though that mid section is a little bit slow paced, the performances from all keep you interested. Scotty Tovar makes John really unlikeable, Christos Kalabogias as Paul is probably my favourite character and with Justin Taite and Brett Zimmerman playing the troubled souls Leonard and Travis beautifully the main cast really do shine. Geo Santini’s mysterious bag owner is, well, mysterious and quietly menacing. Unfortunately, in order to tell us who these guys are they have some flashback scenes that really didn’t make that much sense, or particularly add anything to the movie apart from running time.
The cinematography is delicious throughout and the soundtrack works nicely. The script is a bit turgid in parts but overall it’s not too bad!
The ending just fell flat for me, it could have used the premise a lot more and shown a lot more, as it is it seems like a missed opportunity, or like it was poorly edited.
Overall The Bad Shepherd is a nice, fairly taught thriller that puts a twist on the genre(s) and well worth your attention.
Available now from Scatena & Rosner Films.
