Jen McGowan’s gripping suspense gives chilling new meaning to the words “re-routing for traffic.”
It’s hard to choose a single moment that best exemplifies the hard-edged feminist lens at work in director Jen McGowan’s chilling “Rust Creek,” but the image of the teenage Sawyer (Hermione Corfield) gruffly ripping off her acrylic nails to scale a ditch is a top contender. It’s a move that might be perceived as funny in a more commercial genre film, but is entirely believable in McGowan’s understated and plausible nightmare — making it all the more chilling.
Intimate in scope to its great advantage, “Rust Creek” begins and ends with Sawyer’s journey, with a stable of male friends and foes providing color and intrigue. When she receives word of a job interview in Washington D.C., the soon-to-be college graduate hops in her red SUV and hits the road. Following her navigation app, Sawyer turns off the highway to avoid traffic, and quickly finds herself lost on the desolate back roads of rural Kentucky. When she mutters to herself, as if willing it to be true, “I can figure this out,” she is instantly recognizable to anyone who considers themselves capable of handling any situation.
