[REVIEW] Overlook Film Festival: Trim Season
Debuting at this year’s Overlook Film Festival, Trim Season is a dark, mysterious film about a group of young folks recruited to go to a marijuana farm out in the middle of a mountain town where they think they’re just earning some extra cash. Still, when the truth happens upon them, they find they may not be able to escape from what was to be a quick cash trip.
Emma (Bethlehem Millio; Sick) is at the end of her rope. Fired from her job, deep in debt, and about to be kicked out of her home, she is presented with a too-good-to-be-true opportunity along with her best friend, Julia (Alex Esso, Midnight Mass, Starry Eyes) by a sketchy young man, James (Marc Senter) by way of a “friend”. After a night out, they set out on their journey to meet up with James and a few other recruited trimmers to get to the farm where they’ll be working. It starts out quite puzzling as James requires them to join him in a van where he’ll transport them, leaving their own vehicles. Emma is uncomfortable with this, but is also not one to put up much of a fight or speak up for herself. Once at the farm, they are greeted by their gracious hostess and boss, Mona (Jane Badler, V) who offers them a lovely dinner and a taste of wine and weed. Even with this, you can feel the unease set in.
Once work is underway with Emma and Julia learning the ropes of how to handle and trim marijuana properly, the filterless Harriet (Ally Ioannides, The Sex Lives of College Girls) makes the faux pas of removing newspaper covering from the windows of the cabin they work in. Unfortunately, Emma takes the blame for this and is made to replace the covering that Harriet removes. When Emma goes to get the newspaper to start on the work ahead of her, Harriet joins her as a form of an apology but makes matters worse when she steals a “nug” of marijuana from Mona’s stash of weed made specifically for her, and her alone. When Harriet shows the girls what she has, they immediately let her know she has made a mistake that could jeopardize their work. Yet, when she smokes the secret weed, she encounters a grave consequence that sets off a chain of deadly events.
Trim Season is a witchy film with captivating imagery, especially of the location surrounded by smoky mountains and picturesque lines of trees and fields. It was not immediately sold on Emma as a final girl, her transformation from timid and quiet to powerful and harnessing power she never possessed before a little quick to know how this took place, and when she found this new ability. However, when she does come into herself, it’s captivating.
Mona, and her sons acting as part of her cronies, are just this side of creepy that it keeps you intrigued. You get images of their past but only in scarce pieces. A backstory on Mona and her sons would be great to see how this family came to be, and to explore more of that family dynamic as Chris seems to be the most beloved of him and Malcolm, the younger of Mona’s two sons.
The cast for Trim Season as an ensemble work incredibly well together and this film is great if you enjoy folk horror with a modern take. Directed by Ariel Vida and written by David Blair, Sean E. DeMott, and Cullen Poythress, it premiered at the 2023 Overlook Film Festival.
