Heartland of Darkness
“Heartland of Darkness” went by the name of “Blood Church,” at some point, and while I get why, the title it goes by now feels much more attuned to what this movie is. In what feels like a holdover from 1980s horror, Eric Swelstad’s film deals with a small town controlled by a charismatic preacher, and has a journalist trying to bring him down. It’s interesting that the film seems to be approaching the notion of Satanic Panic from the perspective of a journalist trying- honestly- to uncover it, when so many amplified the moral panic that was a reaction to shifts in culture at the beginning of the 1980s, as well as the rise of the modern evangelical movement, without really questioning whether it was an actual happening. This is easily the most compelling part of the film.
Paul Henson (Dino Tripodis) comes to the small town of Cooperton, Ohio, his daughter (Sharon Klopfenstein) in tow, and immediately buys the newspaper to run. It’s not long before he’s harassing the sheriff for leads, and he is taken to a gruesome crime scene. The sheriff thinks it’s drug related, but by the opening scene, we- and Paul- come to suspect something more sinister. Maybe it has to do with the town’s unconventional preacher, Reverend Donovan (Nick Baldasare), who has an assistant (Linnea Quigley) he trusts to get some things done.
Swelstad having a good premise for his film, sadly, does not many the film particularly good. The film strikes a tone in performance and execution that reminded me of the cheesiest of cheeseballs featured on “Mystery Science Theater 3000” and RiffTrax over the years. The performances are very rough around the edges- only Quigley and John Dunleavy as a reverend Henson brings in come out unscathed- and there are plenty of times where this film feels like a “Troll 2”-like trainwreck into absurdity when we’re supposed to take things seriously. That being said, the film remained watchable throughout, partially because of how loopy the film got in tone, but also, because it’s fundamental narrative held my interest. Yes, the performances are unbalanced, but the storytelling is sound, and I stayed with this film until the end, even when the characters do something so ridiculously predictable you can’t help but laugh. “Heartland of Darkness” kept me on the hook the whole way through.
