Plague Town

Plague Town

Starring: Josslyn DeCrosta, Erica Rhodes, David Lombard, Lindsay Goranson, James Warke

Directed by: David Gregory

Reviewed by: Conor Flynn







‘Plague Town’ is a feature which has the whiff of a Roger Corman production, but in reverse gear. Whereas Corman produced many films in which Ireland posed as some location other than itself, ‘Plague Town’ does exactly the opposite thing. Here scenic Connecticut doubles for rural Ireland. Apparently the alleged generalisations of Irish culture in certain Corman productions didn’t go down too well with some Irish news media. Either the producers of this film were able to foresee the recent downturn in the US economy well in advance or may have been afraid that newspaper 'Irish Independent' might run them out of the emerald isle using flaming wads of turf and shillelaghs. It seems no matter where you go, you can’t escape da ‘auld stereotypin’ ta be sure…

After another local gives birth to a deformed baby, a priest (who else) decides to take matters into his own hands and dispose of the abomination, but the father of the child has other ideas and murders the priest instead. Fourteen years later, a dysfunctional American family, Molly (DeCrosta), Jessica (Rhodes), Jerry (Lombard) and Annette (Goranson), lead by Jessica’s British hubby Robin (Warke), venture into the area and eventually find the place swarming with in-bred children and demented old hags…

These Irish eyes weren’t exactly smiling at the prospect of viewing this film, and the likelihood of my face turning forty shades of green during the subsequent hour and a half seemed inevitable as I watched this potential clanger unfold. Things got murkier than a pint of Guinness as the family miss the bus back (presumably) to Co. Shamrock and the small town of Ballygobackwards in the province of Glocca Morra. Suffice to say that the usual negative beliefs of Ireland are here, but this film manages to go two steps forward, one giant leap back. Less generalising than usual is the depiction of the American family unit, which is rather unwholesome. Also the city (there seems to be only one in Ireland) is now deemed ‘cultured’. Unfortunately the countryside is more backward than ever. Simply trust no-one. Ye know…to be sure and all.

There are some truly risible set-pieces along the way, case in point; the moment in which an old hag captures Robin and tries to alert her children of his presence. She screams into the night “we've got one here”. Before they even hear this wild racket, he’s freed himself and legging it out the door. The pay-off for this moment is priceless as the batty old woman screams “he's getting away”! As you will have probably guessed, the acting from everyone involved is nominal. The same can be said of the story and the level of frights. All things considered, there are elements of merit. ‘Plague Town’ manages a few excellently staged gore scenes (a hanging and decapitation) and inventive camerawork which will satisfy gore-hounds.

‘Plague Town’ is stereotypical rubbish saved by inventive gore scenes, good camera work and one unintentional laugh. Give it a miss until it appears on DVD...