‘Trim Season’ Review – New Summer Horror Hits Indifferent Note

Trim Season is a bit of an anomaly, in more ways than one. You’ll be thrown off base as soon as you see the first string of fade transitions tying together shots that, while you may have never considered in need of them, are changed entirely by their bookending. Around every turn, this film is throwing a curveball on the visual side of things. For a film that plays things to a relatively simple and unimposing degree, much can be said about the cinematic language through which this story is told.

The story itself follows a group of young folks trying to make some easy money on a marijuana farm, but of course, it isn’t that easy. This is a horror movie, after all, so it doesn’t take long for the plot to devolve into calculated madness and stray far away from that base idea.

At the core of this thing is that group of young characters, and how you feel about them could end up making or breaking your experience. Bethlehem Millon as Emma, who shares a lot of her screentime but is unarguably the lead, is maybe the only undeniable win. Most of the performances are at least serviceable, but Millon is undeniably, and reliably, compelling. The rest of the crew range from uninteresting, to annoying, to patently ridiculous (no spoilers, but the accent should give it away). When the antics pick up and the fear factor sets in, it is a bit hard to care about some of the goons who’ve got themselves in trouble here, though it helps to go back to Millon’s persona and root for her at the core of this thing.

Director and co-writer Ariel Vida paints a manic portrait of disgust throughout the film. All the way through, she exemplifies the weird, hones in on the most uncomfortable details, and leans on every possible absurdity. Again, her visual style is an admirable departure from what is both usual and expected in the horror genre as it generally operates. In addition to the unconventional overuse of certain transitions and tendencies, her color palette is supremely sharp, with an intense focus on reds and blues.

At one point, she takes those two colors and turns a forest into a visceral vision of them, contrasting the amorphous foliage with pointy shapes and weaponry. All that to say, the film looks quite good, and that aspect alone may make this a worthy watch for some.

But others, perhaps many, will fail to dig into Trim Season past the surface. Even if you get through a first watch, there isn’t much here that would theoretically compel one to come back to it. Sometimes, a film being inoffensive is just as bad as it being bad, and while this certainly isn’t a bad film, it is inoffensive to a high degree.

It’s violent, absolutely, and works towards implementing some interesting concepts, but most of what’s done here has been done better elsewhere in the genre. That’s a tough criticism and a fine line, as it isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a film or work of art to wear its inspirations on its sleeve. But Trim Season feels like a narrative compilation of more precise, better stories, and accomplishes very little on its own as a result.

What’s worse, the villain is a total non-starter, pushing the hammier elements past their limits and condemning the film to forgetfulness in the end. If you’re just dying for new horror this summer, Trim Season may work for one watch, but past that, there’s little here to remember it by. This is an indifferent shrug, all things considered.

Trim Season is currently available in select theaters and On Demand courtesy of Blue Harbor Entertainment.