 |
| Courtesy: Mushroom Pictures |
The 2016 Australian indie Boys in the Trees is a very different type of Halloween movie. Yes, it is set on Halloween night, and yes, it includes horror elements, or at least supernatural (or possibly supernatural) elements that use horror iconography, but it is not a horror movie. Instead, it is a very unusual coming-of-age tale, which utilizes magical realism and darkly fantastical elements to tell a very human story, about the literal and figurative nightmares of growing up. The obvious film to compare it to would be Donnie Darko – similarly a surreal hybrid of teen drama and horror elements set on Halloween – but Boys in the Trees is something rather different, that doesn't really feel like it draws from Donnie Darko at all, despite superficial similarities. Instead it feels like an almost Richard Linklater-esque slice of life, following its teenage characters across a single transformative night, interspersed with fever-dream bursts of the fantastical and chilling that feel a bit like a modern riff on Ray Bradbury. It has elements that feel familiar from other films set on Halloween night, but feels very unique among them. This is definitely a film for those who want a different sort of Halloween viewing, that is a bit less spooky and a bit more personal, but still very steeped in the otherworldly atmosphere of the holiday.
 |
| Courtesy: Mushroom Pictures |
It is Halloween night 1997 in suburban Australia, and circumstances have reunited bitterly estranged teenage ex-best-friends Corey (Toby Wallace, Galore, Babyteeth) and Jonah (Gulliver McGrath, The Loved Ones, Hugo, The Voices). Corey is a member of his high school's cruel pack of bullies, although he has no taste for their cruelty and longs to escape his so-called friends; Jonah is an awkward, introverted outcast who is the bullies' favorite target, and turning his back on their friendship was Corey's price of admission to the in-crowd. When the two end up reluctantly walking home together through the woods where they used to play as kids, on this "night of the grave's delight" when the veil between worlds is thin, they end up taking a surreal, possibly-mystical or possibly-imagined journey through their regrets, guilts, and traumas of growing up, and the unresolved issues surrounding the dissolution of their friendship. When they played in the woods as kids they would scare each other with spooky stories, and that tradition comes back to life, fueled by the energies of Halloween, as they share - and experience - horror stories that give voice to the very real teenage struggles that haunt them. Writer/director Nicholas Verso uses this storytelling conceit and Halloween-night setting to mix magical realism and ambiguously-real touches of genre elements to what is otherwise, at its narrative and thematic core, a bittersweet coming-of-age story about grounded-in-reality crises of growing up and trying to fit in, or at least survive high school.
Director Verso's blending of styles and storytelling modes is what makes the film feel quite unique: the styles and modes he uses are certainly familiar, but the combination isn't one that I had encountered before in quite this way. While Donnie Darko similarly combines a high school drama set in the recent past with supernatural elements, it does so in a way that is consistently very foreboding and strange, and usually feels slightly unreal at least. This film switches between its two modes in a way that very deliberately contrasts. The story's magical-realism elements feel like a gen-X version of Ray Bradbury's stories in that vein – specifically his Green Town stories, Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes – In which supernatural, strange, and horrific elements similarly bleed into the everyday world of small-town kids. Or more accurately - though this is a rather deep cut - it reminded me a lot of filmmaker/author Philip Ridley's excellent magical-realist coming-of-age novel In The Eyes of Mr. Fury (which, incidentally, I cannot recommend highly enough, particularly in its brilliant author's expanded edition). Real emotions of being a teenager take on supernatural life as hormone-and-homophobia-fueled bullies appear as werewolves to the kids they abuse, the abandoned dreams and ambitions of youth atrophy into angry spirits tormenting the numb and unfulfilled adults who gave up on them, our main characters are literally as well as figuratively haunted by their regrets, and the ability to dream - forgotten as youthful innocence has faded into jaded teenage survival - is a kind of magic to fight the darkness. This type of fantastical storytelling repeatedly creeps into the film during Jonah and Corey's scenes alone together, as the two of them relive their childhood game of telling spooky stories and building fantasy worlds - or is it more than that?
 |
| Courtesy: Mushroom Pictures |
The supernatural aspects of the film are brought to life through some very strong visuals, which achieve pretty impressive results for what I can only imagine was a very small budget. The moody cinematography and lighting take the film from suburban teenage existence into a dream, making excellent use of shadows and darkness in the forest and darkened high school where most of these sequences take place. Verso populates these dreamlike sequences with ethereal figures drawn from Mexican and Hatian images of death, and selectively employees some very effective special effects, like the bullies in the high school casting werewolf-shaped shadows on the wall behind them. A couple dodgy moments of CGI aside, the visuals are great, and walk the film's fine line between fantasy and reality very nicely.
But by contrast, outside of those sequences the film is a much more naturalistic and grounded ensemble story, which feels very much like one of Richard Linklater's slices of teen-or-twentysomething life like Dazed and Confused or SubUrbia. Like those films, Boys in the Trees drifts through a single pivotal night in the lives of its ensemble of characters, by the end of which they will all have faced some truths about themselves, and will all be a bit changed. Corey has a foot in both of the movie's two modes, as his relationships with friend/enemy Jango (Justin Holborow), the leader of the clique of bullies, and friend-who-wants-to-be-more-than-that Romany (Mitzi Ruhlmann) are ultimately just as important to the film as his broken friendship with Jonah. But Jango and Romany are also strong characters themselves, and not just players in Corey's story. Jango in particular is an unexpectedly complex version of the antagonistic bully character: while it would have been very easy to simply play him as a villain - or a gender-flipped Heather Chandler - Verso instead chooses to expose his own insecurities, fears of abandonment, and possibly repressed sexuality, turning him instead into just another scared kid who tries to compensate in wildly toxic, destructive, and cruel ways. Verso's writing and direction is pretty insightful into these characters, and both its realistic and magical-realist modes serve the character development extremely well.
 |
| Courtesy: Mushroom Pictures |
It must be said, however, that while flowing back and forth between these two modes is a really interesting idea, the execution doesn't always quite land. There are a couple moments when the switch from relatively grounded teen drama to supernatural storytelling gives a sense of whiplash, as it happens rather suddenly and we are thrown off balance, possibly more than Verso intended. This is especially true at the top of the third act, when the film comes closest to entering actual horror territory, which feels almost like a step too far, in terms of feeling inconsistent with the rest of the film that preceded it. It is, however, just a temporary imbalance, and the movie soon finds its footing again, building to a third act that works quite well, and feels quite emotionally resonant. Verso's mix of tones and styles is a very interesting gambit, and while the transitions from the real to the (possibly) unreal aren't necessarily smooth every single time, when it works, it really works, and both storytelling modes are executed so well that the moments that don't quite work are forgivable and easily overcome.
Boys in the Trees takes its name from a song by Carly Simon, the lyrics to which are reworked into a key monologue that Romany delivers to Corey, so it is no surprise that music is very important to the film. Verso curated a very strong 1997-appropriate soundtrack, which he uses to really conjure up the feeling of that time, and the cultural landscape in which his teenage characters exist. In one more parallel to Donnie Darko, the film very effectively uses licensed songs as the tonal backbones of key sequences. We get memorable needle-drops featuring Garbage, Bush, Gary Numan, Rammstein, The Presidents of the United States of America, and others; those who were around for that era of music will definitely enjoy the trip back in time.
 |
| Courtesy: Mushroom Pictures |
Boys in the Trees is a very compelling and refreshingly different indie, and while it may not be perfect in its execution, its combination of narrative boldness and emotional sincerity more than makes up for any shortcomings in how its ambitious pieces fit together. It is one that I would highly recommend for those who are looking for a less typical sort of Halloween film, and it makes me very excited to see what Nicholas Verso is capable of in the future. Unfortunately it isn't the most readily available in the US right now: while it made its American debut on Shudder in 2018 – a perfect home for it – Shudder's license for the film has subsequently expired, and it now is only available in the US as a rental or digital purchase on YouTube of all places. It hasn't received any physical media release in the US yet either, nor in the UK, although German and Australian discs exist for those who are region-free and don't mind importing. This film has flown way too far under the radar, and really cries out to be more widely discovered; since it hasn't gotten a physical release here yet, it seems like something that would be perfect for an Arrow or Scream Factory or Vinegar Syndrome special edition. We can only hope. In the mean time, it is well worth the digital rental.
Score:
- Christopher S. Jordan
Share this review!