BARE BONES: TRIM SEASON (2024)

TRIM SEASON (2024)

Indie supernatural horror finds Emma (Bethlehem Million) down on her luck losing both her job and her apartment. She and her weed smoking pal Julia (Alex Essoe) decide to go out on the town and drown their sorrows. They meet James (Marc Senter) who offers them an opportunity to come to a remote mountain cabin to trim harvested weed for money. They also get to smoke as much as they want. The girls agree and arrive along with three other women Dusty, Lex and Harriet (Bex Taylor-Klaus, Juliette Kenn De Balinthazy and Ally Ioannides) at the home of the mysterious and eccentric Mona (Jane Badler). Soon after they begin their stay, one of the girls dies horribly smoking Mona’s special stash and the young women begin to think something very not right is going on here and that Mona has a more sinister purpose in store for them.

These young ladies find out the hard way that weed and witchcraft is not a good combination in Trim Season!

Flick is very well directed by Ariel Vida from her script with David Blair from a story by Sean E. DeMott, Cullen Poythress and Megan Sutherland. Despite having a plot that might sound like a Cheech and Chong Halloween movie, Vida creates a spooky, disturbing and sometimes very gory horror that nicely mixes weed culture and dark witchcraft. It has a very unnerving atmosphere and while it takes a little time to get going, once it does there are some very unsettling sequences that sometimes get graphically bloody or violent. She gets some really good performances out of her horror centric cast, especially Bethlehem Million (Sick), Alex Essoe (Starry Eyes, Tales of Halloween), a very likable and sympathetic Bex Taylor-Klaus (Hell Fest) not to mention a delightfully wicked weed witch from legendary Jane Badler (V: The Series). The gore is very well rendered practical effects and Vida has a very effective and mesmerizing visual eye, making spooky good use of her remote mountain locations. Overall, it’s not perfect but is a spooky and blood-spattered supernatural chiller that shows Ariel Vida is a filmmaker to keep an eye on. Recommended! Now streaming!

-MonsterZero NJ

Photo: Paper Street Pictures