THE WILD BUNCH FILM FESTIVAL 2026 REVIEW! Prepare to get high-octane kicks from the thunderclap modern western The Getback, written and directed by the longtime indie auteur Brett William Mauser. Seth (Matt Lambo) is kissing his girl, Dakota (Meghan Morr), in his car in Texas. When asked what to do next, Dakota says she wants them to go to Vegas, as Seth promised. There, she wants all the cash they have in that suitcase with the cocaine in it spread out over an expensive hotel bed to make love on. Seth asks why wait, and they start canoodling on the car seat. That is when they are viciously attacked by cartel members, who try to murder the young couple on the spot. Bathed in bloodshed but alive, the two make it back into the small town outside of Johnson City where they live.
In town, Seth is cornered by Teresa (Nayeli Zambrano), along with her henchmen, who punched Dakota in the head while she waited in the car. Teresa lets Seth know she wants the suitcase he took from the cartel back, or else he is gonna get it. Ruckus ensues. All this commotion causes Sheriff Buck (Cliff Dean) and Deputy Martinez (Ernest Martinez) to interrupt the big breakfast that Maggie (Layne Busse) served them at the diner. After locking up Teresa and her cartel buddies, Sheriff Buck turns to Seth and asks his son what he has gotten himself into. Buck soon finds out when he gets a visit from drug cartel head Mendez (Adriane Miller). Mendez asks that her daughter and the others be released, as it is such a nice town; it would be a shame if anything happened to it…
Seth and Dakota get cozy in the front seat of a car in The Getback.
“That is when they are viciously attacked by cartel members, who try to murder the young couple on the spot.”
Back when I lived in Austin in the 90s, I was lucky enough to attend the first five Quentin Tarantino Film Festivals. Held at the historic Dobie Theater as well as the first-ever Alamo Drafthouse, these events were endless evenings spent with Tarantino, publicly screening film prints he had been collecting. Mostly consisting of obscure features from the 60s and 70s, many of these films drew Tarantino’s attention for the great moments that get the most audience reaction. It’s that undefinable quality where everything comes together at a point where the crowd goes nuts. For lack of a better term, let’s call them thunderclaps: the spots during a movie where the audience audibly reacts, usually with great emotion. Tarantino hunted down and studied these thunderclaps, which helped him fill his own movies with such moments.
That being said, The Getback is wall-to-wall thunderclaps, the kind that Tarantino would love. Sometimes it’s a great line said in the right place; other times it is a devious edit Mauser puts in, as he edited this himself. There was this unforgettable moment right when someone places their wagging finger on a sheriff badge, at the same moment a shot rings out. Like with every planned thunderclap Mauser put in, the audience just ate it up. As rational human beings, viewers do understand that the characters onscreen can’t hear them. So when audiences are driven to the point of involuntary noises in reaction, you’ve got yourself a rodeo on your hands. Everyone rides through The Getback in their seats as if on rocket saddles. All thanks to the well-placed thunderclaps.
Seth rides alongside his father, Sheriff Buck, and a deputy down a rain-soaked street in The Getback.
“…The Getback is wall to wall thunderclaps, the kind that Tarantino would love.”
It’s the kind of movie that gets applause when the title card comes on, as it gets busy that quick. The outlaw couple antics in the opening gave me the same electric hum I got from the beginning of Natural Born Killers, which I saw six times during its original theatrical release. So yes, I liked it from the get-go, but then the batwings spread out wide, making me like it a lot. It also caused me to have a revelation as to how close the western and noir genres are, as The Getback is pitch-black in how dark it gets. We have anti-heroes galore, with the lines of the civilized world being crossed constantly to counter the encroaching doom. This is also gloriously violent, as The Getback gets back to the hyper-violence we saw in the 90s in the US and Hong Kong. This movie is a gallery exhibition in motion, one devoted to the cinematic art of blood and bullets.
Mauser has been making movies in the indie-sphere for decades, many of them having been reviewed in Film Threat. However, it turns out that films like the Serial Rabbit franchise have been just the fuzzy tip of a massive iceberg of talent. This Texas-made movie is exactly what everyone has been complaining has been missing from the theaters. If someone smart out there distributes this theatrically, they will watch audiences get played like fiddles by some decidedly un-Hollywoodlike entertainment. The casting is great, especially Miller, who is a villain’s villain. Also impressive is the delivery of whup-ass by Busse. Tearing across the screen like a comet, this glorious angel of death has the potential to become an action movie weapon of choice. I never in a million years expected to be blown away as hard as I was by The Getback, because I swore they didn’t make them like they used to. Mauser makes it the way they used to, the way that they should start making them again. See it big, and right up front.
The Getback screened at the 2026 Wild Bunch Film Festival.
"…gets back to the hyper-violence like we saw the 90s..."
