Shadows of Willow Cabin
It is a place Albert associates with happy memories of long ago tainted with the later shadows of Willow Cabin near Big Bear Lake, San Bernardino, California, built and once owned by his uncle Russell but now unoccupied since his suicide, Albert having spent summers there in his teens with his cousin Stevie who ran away from home and was never found, now returning there on what is ostensibly an arranged blind first date.
Separated from his wife, he has been chatting with Devon online, half his age but in many ways more secure, an EMT living his life openly while Albert still struggles with the closet door, more baggage than the scant provisions he has brought weighing him down, awkward with Devon and overcompensating in small talk but unaware the trauma he carries will be amplified by the remote seclusion which seems determined to trap them both.
A low-budget two-hander written and directed by Joe Fria who also serves in a number of other production capacities, the Shadows of Willow Cabin are cast over Bryan Bellomo and John Brodsky as middle aged, balding, high school teacher Albert and Devon, outgoing and assured, toned and trim, familiar with the immediate effects of injury and dealing with grief through his work but also carrying the trauma of his youth and thwarted forbidden love.
Undoubtedly well-intentioned, the film exploring the damage that toxic relationships leave on an otherwise well-adjusted and apparently happy and successful person, online personas a facade over scars and pain, the characters and their tentative relationship are flat and unbelievable, Devon prepared to spend five days in an unfamiliar place with no phone signal with a sulky man living a dual life whom he has never met before who waves a variety of red flags from anger management to controlling behaviour.
Albert far from hot enough to warrant overlooking the negatives for Devon to explore his daddy issues, furiously declaring the upstairs rooms of the cabin off-limits only after Devon has looked around and found a not-so-secret stash of personal photos nobody else in the family knew about, with memories, flashbacks and triggers in the form of a handful of cheap jumpscares the haunting of Willow Cabin is as dull and obvious as the Hallmark meet-cute swing set and hot tub montage before a stumble confines Devon to the house.
Having forgotten to pack the leg brace he depends upon to get about in the same way Albert neglected to bring any food but has a case of wine, while some stunted gay men fall back on childlike behaviours under stress both are immature and poorly prepared emotionally and practically, the material sufficient to carry an hour if developed but the Shadows of Willow Cabin falling twice that length, the pacing glacial even as it is heavy-handed in its handling of shame and desire, the sloppy execution recalling Dry Blood more than The Latent Image.
Shadows of Willow Cabin was screened at the Raindance Film Festival on Monday 22nd June and will be available digitally in the UK from Monday 29th June and in the US from Tuesday 30th June
