Wineville

In life, we have to one day close the chapter on our childhood trauma. In horror, closing that chapter often means people dying along the way. This is the case in Brande Roderick’s horror flick, Wineville.

Our tale opens in the small wine town of Wineville. Over the past few weeks, people have gone missing, including a young woman who decides to play the Good…and Hot Samaritan and help a local handyman, Joe (Casey King). We then see the young woman gutted like a pig.

The following day, Tess (Brande Roderick) and her son, Walter (Keaton Roderick Cadrez), travel to her recently deceased father’s home and vineyard. Tess has been estranged from her abusive father since her teens, and this is her first time back. Since her father left no will, everything is left to Tess by default, which troubles her aunt Margaret (Carolyn Hennesy) and her adopted son, Joe (what…that Joe?), as they will have no place to live if Tess sells the farm.

All Tess wants is to sell the vineyard and get out of town, but the paperwork is going to take a week, and then the sale itself may take months. In it for the long haul, Joe gives Walter a tour of the farm along with the warning not to enter certain locked rooms. Joe then teaches Walter how to work the vines. As Walter considers life on the farm, Tess is haunted by suppressed memories and her PTSD from her father’s abuse. On the other hand, Margaret schemes a way to keep Tess from selling everything.

“…Tess is haunted by suppressed memories and her PTSD from her father’s abuse.”

Meanwhile, Tess’ old schoolmate, Sheriff Hicks (Texas Battle), is snooping around the vineyard, looking for clues regarding the missing woman from the beginning of the film. Having just arrived, Tess knows nothing and invites the Sheriff for dinner…for old times’ sake.

Why is Wineville great? Storywise, it refuses to play it safe. Just when you think “no,” the film says, “Oh yes.” For instance, the film opens with a bit of sexiness, leading to a B-movie gutting, which will stay with you to the end. Then, when Tess arrives, the story reveals Tess’ secret about her father’s horrific abuse and Margaret’s possible complicity in her abuse. It’s so creepy Jerry Springer would blush (RIP Jerry).

Wineville also has all the charm of a low-budget indie horror. Let’s face it. If you want to make movies, you have to do it yourself. I’ve followed Brande Roderick’s career for some time and admire her evident passion for making Wineville. I love seeing Roderick back on the big (and small) screen with a fantastic performance as the troubled Tess. She is backed up by an even more troubled performance by Casey King as Joe, Carolyn Hennesy as the creepy and vindictive aunt, and even the young Keaton Roderick Cadrez comes through with a good performance as Walter.

As producer, director, and star, Brande hands us a horror film that’s fun and cringey in all the right ways. Most of it focuses on this truly messed up family and their secrets. There’s some sexiness for the entire spectrum…although I wish it might have been turned up a notch or two—blood, guts, torture, humiliation, ghastly flashbacks, and fantastic fight scenes.

Wineville is a messy and thrilling story of a tortured family. The story never plays by the rules or holds back down a very creepy path. If you’re in the mood for something cringey, creepy, and oddly satisfying, Wineville serves it all—bloody and twisted, just how we like it.