Summary
This taut thriller, led by a stellar set of performances, jumps genres and never takes the audience quite where you expect.
John Rosman’s debut opens with a woman, the as-yet-unnamed Jessica Murdock (Hayley Erin), running to or from something. There are men with guns in her home. We immediately have questions, and in this new take on familiar thriller territory, Rosman is determined to make sure we keep asking them right up until the end credits.
In many ways, Rosman sticks almost religiously to The Fugitive (1993) playbook in NEW LIFE. Jessica’s life is turned upside down when she has to go on the run for the Canadian border when she believes that she is wanted for murder. Elsa Gray (Sonya Walger) is hired as the fixer who has to check every hen house and outhouse to bring her back at any cost.
Yet it’s the points where writer/director Rosman deviates from the formula that makes this a little bit more interesting than your average bear. In building a slow tension, it becomes obvious around the halfway mark that Jessica is in possession of something that makes her dangerous to everyone she comes into contact with — only Jessica is unaware of this fact. This not only veers us into a different genre entirely, but gives us a ticking time bomb as well.
Similarly, Elsa is a career professional who has recently discovered that she has ALS. In a controlled performance by the excellent Walger, she becomes “a prisoner in her own body.” As Elsa begins to realise her limitations, Rosman juxtaposes this with what’s happening to Jessica’s own form of body horror. If I’m being coy about the latter, it’s because there’s a certain joy in the discovery, but suffice it to say there are parallels between the two women.
While not a horror film per se, there’s some terrifically frightening moments. Rosman is not beyond using a few jump scares during these scenes, which work despite the audience knowing more than Jessica (or perhaps because of it). That these are all contrasted with the pristine photography of Mark Evans (All That We Destroy, Satanic Panic), using the backdrop of the pine forest mountains of the Pacific North West to great effect, makes them all the more impactful.
While Rosman indulges in the obligatory Tommy Lee Jones moment between Walger and her fugitive, we’re still left with the feeling that we’ve watched something a little bit more interesting than the average thriller. Subtly, and occasionally more overtly, targeting some of the bigger social issues of the recent pandemic, NEW LIFE is sure to find a dedicated cult audience.
2023 | USA | DIRECTOR: John Rosman | WRITERS: John Rosman | CAST: Sonya Walger, Tony Amendola, Hayley Erin | DISTRIBUTOR: Fantasia Film Festival | RUNNING TIME: 85 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 20 July – 9 August 2022 (Fantasia)
