Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Vincent Grashaw
Starring: Robert Patrick, Nick Stahl, Scott Haze, Kelli Garner, Jake Weber
Sorcerer, William Friedkin's remake of The Wages of Fear, famously departs from the original by spending its first half
spinning backstories of the various men who will eventually undertake
its dangerous journey in the second half. It's almost an anthology film,
and I don’t think I'm alone in enjoying the first half of Friedkin's
remake more than the second. Director Vincent Grashaw and writer
Robert Alan Dilts pull a similar trick with their Southern Gothic
thriller What Josiah Saw. Much of its runtime is devoted to the backstories of two of its
central characters, and these chapters of the film are more involving
than the final act that weaves them into the central plot.
Robert Patrick is in typically gruff form as Josiah, the
abusive, alcoholic patriarch of the Graham family. An oil company wants
to buy the family farm, despite being warned off by the local sheriff,
who spins a tale of how Josiah's wife hung herself after seemingly
enduring years of torment; her ghost is now said to haunt the farm.
Josiah dismisses such claims, but his mentally challenged son Thomas (Scott Haze), who has recently returned to live with him, is convinced he sees
visions of his mother. One night, Thomas is surprised when Josiah claims
he too has been visited by the spirit, and immediately decides to change
his ways, giving up the bottle and helping his son to fix up the
farm.
The second chapter introduces us to Thomas's older, wayward brother Eli
(Nick Stahl). Recently released from prison for the statutory
rape of a 16-year-old he claims lied about her age, Thomas has run up a
debt to a dangerous mobster, Boone (Jake Weber). To clear his
debt, Boone sends Thomas on what might be a suicide mission to steal
gold from the gypsy clan whose carnival is about to leave town. This
sequence is the film's highlight, a short thriller as engaging as any of
the segments of Pulp Fiction. Grashaw ramps up the tension and manages to get us onside with Thomas
despite him being portrayed as anything but a sympathetic figure. We're
thrown into a situation where violence can break out at any time – add
in some mysticism courtesy of a gypsy medium from the Maria Ouspenskaya
school and things take a deliciously uncertain turn.
Next we meet Thomas's twin sister Mary (Kelli Garner). Having
been sterilised as a young woman (we can guess why this may have been),
she now wants to adopt a child but is suffering from intense depression.
The tension of Thomas's segment is replaced here by equally effective
discomfort during a dinner party in which Mary refuses to be patronised
by her husband's friends.
All three of Josiah's children's strands weave together in a final act
that spills the beans on the truth behind this family's dark past. You
may well have guessed the revelations before the film unveils them, but
they're no less shocking regardless.
What Josiah Saw is Grashaw's third film, but thanks to it
being snapped up by Shudder it will likely serve as most viewers'
introduction to his talents. With its dark themes and lengthy
backstories it would seem to be inspired by the more sprawling works of
Stephen King, and it plays like a more effective King adaptation than
any of the actual King adaptations of recent years. Grashaw's direction
is mature and unpretentious, never getting in the way of telling his
often gripping story. After many years in the wilderness it's something
of a comeback for Stahl, once a '90s indie cinema stalwart and excellent
here as a sleazebag who possesses a disarming charisma. Patrick's screen
persona is used cleverly here, with Grashaw exploiting our
preconceptions regarding the sort of characters the actor is known for
portraying to great effect.
