Your attention will never escape once you start the riveting dark abduction thriller Fathers, written and directed by Harley Wallen. Natalie (Kaiti Wallen) is lying in a hospital bed, remembering nothing except flashes of running bloody through the woods. She has been missing for 15 years, having been grabbed off the street when she was just a young child (Emilia Wallen). Natalie is finally reunited with Calvin (Jerry Hayes), the only parent she has left, as her mother, Lisa (Denise Emilia Sandulescu), died while Natalie was missing. Chief Norris (Grover McCants) vows to find out what happened and puts detectives Booker (Yancey Fuqua) and Parker (Deon Hunt) on the case. After bringing Natalia home to live with him, Calvin wakes up one night with Natalie standing over him, in a daze, a knife raised in her hand.
He hires therapist Bridget Porter (Leslie Mechigian) to work with Natalie and her PTSD. Bridget gets Natalie’s permission to be hypnotized, with the hope that she can finally remember where she was all those years. She remembers being a little girl, begging to go out and play, while her mom fought with Calvin on the phone for never spending any time with them. As she rode her bike around, a nice man named Bobby (Harley Wallen) called her over to his car for help with directions. When she came closer, Bobby asked if she remembered him, then forced her into his car. As the sessions go on, Natalie starts finding notes around the house, all of them saying Calvin is not her real father…
Midwest maestro Wallen is another great reason to not forget the Motor City when it comes to low-budget wonders. It was Film Threat magazine that inspired me to go to film school just across the Michigan border in Toledo, Ohio. It was an indie filmmaker’s paradise, filled with crumbling buildings, gorgeous trees, and an undeniable visual funk. Watching Fathers feels like riding the elevated Michigan freeways of the 90s: the magnificent pacing is non-stop acceleration with no guard rails. The viewer is sent pinballing through time periods, traversing a web around the horror of what really happened. Wallen deals with flashbacks like a card shark deals cards, giving you another flash of lightning before pulling you back into darkness.
“Natalie is lying in a hospital bed, remembering nothing except flashes of running bloody through the woods.”
There are several abrupt cuts between flashbacks that are pure genius, with editor Bradford Clark striking the chord and nerve perfectly. It is reminiscent of the notes Sam Raimi, another director with Michigan indie roots, used to hit in the day. It is priceless tricks like this that great films like Fathers can be ushered out of thin air by the right magicians. Besides the excellent foliage of the forest, this film doesn’t trade in distracting flash. The visuals are straight as a razor, getting down to the bone and to the point. What keeps it jolting is the driving music. The thundering score by Firoze Patel and Kaizad Patel keeps an invisible electricity storming through the proceedings, keeping a lot of salt on the fries at all times.
Fathers take you to a darker place than you may expect. Wallen uses the abduction and its aftermath to create the perfect haunted house for the audience to get lost in. Through his brilliant use of selective expositions through traumatic flashbacks, Wallen keeps the viewer bathed in the shadows, following a thin neon trail that keeps doubling back. All revelations just lead to further mystery, making the viewer question what is the true reality of what is going on. By taking on the role of the kidnapper, Wallen tortures the audience by being so relatable and charming, making your skin crawl at first. Then you really start wondering whether Wallen’s abductor is actually protecting Natalie from something far worse.
While some of this reality questioning reflects Natalie’s own confusion over which side is up, the audience is caught in a bigger hall of mirrors. You aren’t sure which side you should dare root for, because how can you face yourself if you guessed wrong? This is the chilling fun that the Fathers funhouse offers, a long plunge into a darkness that you might not come back out of. I am not saying you will go full Shutter Island by watching this movie. I am just saying I kinda did, as I kept hedging my bets right up to the last second. And I am very satisfied with the resolution, as it has the most poignant use of a classic horror tradition I have seen yet. There is a lot to look up to with Fathers, as the chills come faster and harder than a black ice skid.
"…the magnificent pacing is non-stop acceleration with no guard rails."
