Review of Jug Face (2013) by Jei P — 11 Aug 2015

As I started watching "Jug Face," I immediately found so many reasons to stop, so many cliches.

Backwards hill people, an unknown entity whose portal to this world is a pit, cult.

Behavior in said hill people, including human sacrifice. As I kept watching, however, I began.

To realize that it wasn't trying to introduce these elements as tropes. It was telling a story,.

About a close-knit community with strong religious beliefs that inform every individual's.

Daily life. This community has a moral code, it has a certain order, it sustains itself.

Through various specialized labor areas, including a shaman, who is separate from the.

Community leader.

Outside of the supernatural elements (I know I'll catch flack for this) this movie.

Reminded me of "Fidldler on the Roof." A community with religious traditions that extend.

To arranged marriage, and hiding secrets, a younger generation in sexual awakening and.

Resistant to the cloyishness of their existence. I found that the supernatural elements.

Did not make me think horror movie, but rather, this community had a real entity they had.

Chosen as their god, who exacted real punishment for not following established order, and.

Ultimately could only be satisfied by confession and penance, and taking personal.

Responsibility for disrupting the prescribed order.

It initially seemed like a rip-off of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," then it went so much.

Farther, with "The Lottery" as just a starting point. This is the kind of story Steven King was.

Trying to tell in "Children of the Corn," and came close in so many other of his stories.

And novels. Small towns with their traditions both essential and horrible, with their rigid.

Expectations and entrenched hypocrisy. I was also reminded of another Shirley Jackson.

Story/novel, "We Have Always Lived in the Castle." The father of the protagonist is rather.

Unexpectedly tolerant, the mother shrewish but protective of community tradition and morals.

The only relationship I found distasteful was that between the protagonist and her brother,.

And his casual treatment of her, as if she were merely toy for him. She tells him she's.

Pregnant with his child, and his only response is that she cannot hold it over him.

I recognized love in so many different expressions while watching this movie, something.

I have not seen in pretty much any horror movie I've seen. It's a complicated movie,.

Uncomfortable, yet with an eloquence and power, like "Deliverance," only, to me, I was.

Not left with stereotypes of hillbillies and good ol' boys, just people trying to.

Negotiate a life based on powerful tradition and belief.