Becky Sagona This movie seemingly has multiple personalities. It tries to be funny or horrific, though never at the same time. The "horror scenes" are pretty good, frightening even. The menacing kidnapper is believable, as are his hostages. The "comedic scenes" are just fillers to occupy space. It seems to have separate story lines, twisting within the main selling point. The lack of typical horror tricks, like lots of gore and weapons, brings a certain anxiety that makes this film a thriller. Most of the acting is terrible, yet if you're a true movie enthusiast, you'll endure the obvious "b movie" atmosphere. The plot isn't a bad idea, the production of it is. I won't advise against seeing it, I'll just advise not to get your hopes up. Though obviously entertaining, some of its scenes are hard to watch, due to realistic subject matter or the obvious terror of horrible acting.

Wally Cleaver After viewing Deer Crossing i felt dirty. In the positive sense of seeing the dark side of humanity-type-dirty. I had a very similar feeling after watching Requiem for a Dream.I'll leave the summary out since it can be viewed on the main IMDb page. What i will say is this....the casting is phenomenal. Ernie Hudson and Doug Bradley are amazing (as one would expect). However, you can't forget about the lesser known stars of the film. Carmela Hayslett delivers a strong performance in what is not always an easy role - a woman who has to be strong yet sensitive. Warren Hemenway and Tina Desiree Berg play off each other quite nicely. Kudos also to Laura L. Cottrel and Sebastian Banes for their performances. (i can only imagine what they had to go through after watching this). The film has so many colorful characters with unique personalities, but for my money the 2 stars of the film were K.J. Linhein and Tom Detrik. K.J. plays Lucas Walton, a truly disturbed backwater psychopath..but what i appreciate is how he doesn't go over the top crazy. He keeps the character dark and disturbing...but still controlled. Sinister glares can be far creepier then maniacal laughter, and he has them in spades. Tom Detrik almost goes the opposite route...taking his character over the top, however he pulls it off with amazing screen presence. It really gives a unique edge to an otherwise standard character.But what i appreciate the most about Deer Crossing is how it doesn't insult one's intelligence. It's a smart, slick, and amazingly well shot film that replaces big-budget Hollywood explosions and cheesy one-liners that would make a 5 year old roll their eyes, with a harrowing story, great dialog, and intense characters. Much like Glengarry Glen Ross, Deer Crossing really highlights its strengths - characters and dialog. Christian Grillo has really raised the bar for independent films with this one. You're not going to get what you typically see in theaters, keep in mind this is a low budget film, but $50k looks like a million dollars here.If you want pretty things to look at....watch Bad Boys, or Con Air. If you want dirty, dark and real....watch Deer Crossing.

Lyle Donner Some of "Deer Crossing" will put off a lot of people, mostly women. The good news is that this movie goes pretty far on the exploitation scale to please hardcore fans of low budget crime/horror fans. It's like a Jack Ketchum story line, mixed with classic moments of pathos with rich characters that will not be forgotten. "Bad Day at Black Rock" and "In the Heat of the Night" are inspired and classic movies that are reworked into something new and frightening. A mother and young boy get lost on the way to grandmothers house. An accident brings them captive by a real monster, Lukas Walton. A farmer with a perverse habit of collecting women for his psycho-sexual pleasure. After years of torture, and raising the young boy as his own, a retired lawman comes to sleepy Carvin County for closure to this lost case. A former cop that does not fit in (yes, he is black and Carvin County is a hotbed of racist white folk). The local sheriff has his hands full with the local thugs and bikers that rule this nightmare town. A drug addict sheriff is a puppet to a lady pimp and her lunatic henchman. But Luke Walton is connected somewhere in the mix, with an interloper snooping around his homestead. Christian Jude Grillo lays it all out on the screen. No holds barred! That's his style, and his first film "Booley" was a prime example of his mindset. It's off the charts with the brutality. The jewel in the Cracker Jack prize bag is K.J.Linhein as our real life monster, Luke Walton. A asset to making a great movie is it's villain, and Grillo found a great actor here. Filling in the main role of troubled hero is Christopher Mann (Booley alum) as the cop. Excellent support from "Hellraiser" star Doug Bradley as the corrupt lawman in the way. Tom Detrik (Booley's titular star) brings a fine turn as Dick (one-eyed loony with a long knife) and guest star Ernie Hudson in an extended cameo. The movie is not perfect.... and some performances are miscast, but it does not hurt the movie. Down and Dirty, for it's worth. Grungy scenes will make you squirm.

Aurora Baker Deer Crossing is a complex story that starts off being about a woman named Maggy (Laura Lynn Cottrel) who has left wit her young son, Cole, to go on a trip somewhere. When she detours she ends up hitting a deer and her and her son end up being picked up by mountain man who holds them captive for eight years. Maggy is kept shacked up in his shed as some sort of play thing and he raises Cole to be his son. This is one of three stories intertwining into the main plot of the film. The disappearance eventually ends up in the hands of a retired detective named Stanswood (Christopher Mann) who is reluctant to take the case after Maggy's husband desires to hire him personally. Before he knows it ends up in Carvin Country where as the story progresses, other disturbing tales unfold as well. Doug Bradley performs very well in Deer Crossing as Sheriff Lock, a cop who takes himself more seriously than the rest of the town does. This film will not be for everyone. It's disturbing but not in a typical blood-filled, over-gored, torture chamber sort of way. This film is disturbing because it's more realistic and emphasizes on the violent impulses and corrupt nature of human beings who you would hope don't actually exist in this world. I'm not big on Independent films but this one really stands out. It certainly doesn't look like a low-budget flick and I'm actually surprised that for the amount of money spent on Deer Crossing that such great visual effects and production was put into this film. I admire the director's effort. Grillo obviously is setting out to change the world of cinema and get us all out of the mainstream of typically tired horror films. I also very much liked the acting in this film. Aside from Bradley and Ernie Hudson I think Hollywood might need to start keeping an eye on Deer Crossing's talent pool. Laura Lynn Cottrel as Maggy was one of the best performances in the film. She was so emotional ad convincing that I still think of Maggy sometimes and what she's been through. Christopher Mann's performance was also top-notch. The most memorable indeed was K.J. Linhein as Lukas Walton. I have no doubts that people will be having nightmares about him for years to come. Tom Detrik really stood out in this film as Dick, the flamboyantly-ruthless villain of the film. He actually wasn't the main villain but I think he should have been. I thought Carmela Hayslett's small part was very good as Olivia. It was nice to see Carmela Hayslett outside of her Roxsy Tyler Carnival of Horrors persona. She plays some sort of cop. She's not convincing as a cop but I don't think she was supposed to be. Her character's job was obviously to not come across as a cop to the person she was interrogating. And Kevin Fennel as older Cole, I've never seen Fennel before but I can't imagine his role being played in any other way than how he did it. If he's new than he has a great career ahead of him!