Rob Rotondo’s Crooked Miles is a dark fantasy/horror thriller that keeps the audience guessing. It opens on a woman sleeping while a strange, pale man appears in her bedroom. Then the action shifts to 1812, where a man named Paul (Kevin O. Peterson) comes to ask The Crooked Man (David Weindel) to help get his deceased wife back to him alive. It seems The Crooked Man is a healer, or perhaps a necromancer. He uses a mystical book similar to the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis from The Evil Dead to make his magic work.
The Crooked Man and his book take center stage as they move down through the ages. What follows is a series of vignettes connected by the mysterious power of the book, and moved through time by The Crooked Man. The next time jump is to 1968, where a woman gives birth on her kitchen floor.
In a more contemporary episode, a blind woman named Nichole (Sarah-Doe Osborne) has the book, and we see her on a date with a man named Trevor (Johnny Cicco) whom she meets from a dating app. She uses the book to restore her own sight, but we see that Trevor is tied up in her bedroom as a prisoner. There are dark powers at play, as The Crooked Man makes an appearance in the various time periods when the book is used. There seems to always be a price to pay when the power is invoked. The book contains sorcery that grants wishes, captures souls, and creates monsters.
“… The Crooked Man uses a mystical book to make his magic work …”
Rotondo focuses more on tonal impressions in quick flashes than logical sequences of cause and effect. There’s an emotional flow that can be frustrating unless a viewer relaxes into it and doesn’t try too hard to puzzle out the logic. Along with eschewing exposition, the time jumps are jarring and make the film feel disconnected. As long as you are fine with a bit of “WTF” in your cinema, Crooked Miles is a thrilling, dark, wild ride.
While the texture of the film is interesting, the production quality is uneven. The editing is static. Scenes that are meant to build suspense wind up being dull, with a camera parked on a static image for too long. A snappier edit would benefit the film. The soundtrack is all over the map in terms of musical cues and sound effects. In one instance, a tolling bell signifies nothing discernible. The sound is also poorly processed, making the dialogue sometimes difficult to understand. Oddly, the existence of post-credits sequences is announced in the opening title. Generally speaking, post-credit material is meant as an extra treat for the fans, but in this case it contains information that will help the viewer make sense of what has gone before, and perhaps set up a sequel.
Crooked Miles employs an interesting use of the book becoming organically integral to the script without being a gimmick. Rotondo leaves much to the imagination of the audience, declining to over-explain the events depicted.
"…Interesting use of a magic book in vignettes over time"
