Stash is Low Budget Indie Horror From Kentucky
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Stash draws on multiple rural stereotypes to build an uncomfortable depiction of the worst-case scenario.
Written by The Horror Czar, Don Sumner
November 20, 2010
Release: November 4, 2007 (U.S.)
Written and Directed by: Jacob Ennis
Starring:
Karen Boles as Sarah Conrad
Nathan Day as CJ
Stacey T. Gillespie as Stan
Kevin Taylor as Bud
Billy W. Blackwell as Detective Killborn
Debbie Rochon as Miss. Brooks
In the hills of Kentucky disturbing things are afoot… let’s start from the beginning.
The enormous and long-haired Bud (Kevin Taylor) is a local pot-grower in an unnamed Kentucky locale, known for the sticky bud that local rap-listening rednecks enjoy so much. Two such rednecks, CJ (Nathan Day) and Stan (Stacey T. Gillespie) decided one day to sneak into Bud’s lovely ramshackle home and take a few free samples, to their doom. Crazy Bud catches them and offers a deal: CJ and Stan bring him three girls over the next three days or Bud will kill the boys and their families as punishment for their transgression. The rednecks choose option A.
Meanwhile college-student Sarah Conrad (Karen Boles) is on her way home when she has car trouble that strands her in the Kentucky sticks with no cell service – and right in the path of CJ and Stan.
Suddenly Sarah has a date with Bud tonight, and it’s not going to be pretty. You see, Bud is also a bit of a bastard who enjoys raping, cutting and killing women for sport.
Stash is a very low budget film written, directed, filmed and edited by Jacob Ennis of TuckyWood Productions. More than being a product of Kentucky, Stash draws from the state for everything from talent to sets, locales to stereotypes. And the stereotypes are thick, complete with trailer parks, confederate flags and overalls.
The story in Stash is strong, as is the quality of the photography and sound. Karen Boles as Sarah gives a good performance as the victimized�yet feisty college student as does Deborah Tucker as Sarah’s distraught�mother (though she mostly cries) and Nathan Day as the pot-smoking girl snatcher CJ… in fact, it appeared as though Day was enjoying his role just a bit too much, (hopefully) a testament to his talent. You’ve got to love a guy who, after being kicked, head-butted and
scratched by the girl he is kidnapping, can quip “you ain’t making me nothin’ but hard darlin’”. BHM favorite Debbie Rochon has a minor role in Stash and does a fine job, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why her character was in the film at all. It was pretty random. She is, however, in the scene where producer Billy W. Blackwell as Detective Killborn momentarily forgets his name, and that was pretty funny… because it wasn’t on purpose.
Positive attributes aside, Stash has its problems. One of them is the character Bud. I just wasn’t buying him at all. A combination of the “fake voice” acting (think Mark Wahlberg in The Happening), the maniacal laughter that was (painfully) obviously forced and the goofy improvisational dialogue really wrecked it. If you can’t get into the villain, especially one built up to be such a vicious killer-type guy as Bud, it is hard to stay engaged. The improvisational dialogue is a key here, because it appears that there was a lot of that in this film. A bit more control by the director may have helped pull things together, and that would be a good thing.
In the grand scheme of low budget Indie horror Stash is better than most in some areas, and requires life support in others. I imagine that as Ennis gains experience and exerts more control over his actor’s directions he’ll be creating some good horror because most of the components are already there – they just need some deep-tissue massaging.
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