Rust Creek is a backwoods survival thriller, but not one that truly fits in the horror movie category like Wrong Turn or even Deliverance. What it is is very intense and well acted for a low budget affair from IFC Midnight.
A lot of terrible shit goes down, brought on by the male gaze perpetrated by your basic white redneck shitheads. Unnecessary evil. Our heroine, Sawyer, heads from her college confines to attend a job interview in Washington, D.C. over the Thanksgiving week and ends up sidetracked by a less than helpful GPS in the fall Kentucky forested netherworld. Once lost, (of course) she's accosted by a pair of dipshits who should be named Bubba and Cletus, and whose intentions are less than gentlemanly.
Sawyer is an unassuming hardass, and a convincing one thanks to a grounded performance from Hermione Corfield. Blessed with martial arts skills, she separates herself from these goons, and heads off into the forest, but not before being wounded. The local police are well, the local police. And hence, corruption rears its ugly head.
While Sawyer may have black belt defense ability, she's not a survivalist, and Kentucky in November is not friendly. The elements are not able to get to her before salvation and protection come from an unexpected place, and a heck of a quiet and haunted performance from Jay Paulson. An unexpected and believable partnership develops, and along the way you learn more than you want to know about meth.
Written and directed by females, two gifted ones in Jen McGowan and Julie Lipson, respectively, Rust Creek is a tight, intense and fast moving little thriller that deserves a lot more credit than the streaming burial it seems to have received. It's highly recommended, and available from AMC+ and Tubi
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