Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Writer/director: Brady Hall, Defiant Screen Entertainment.
The tropes of the thriller genre are used in Burn It All that centres on a woman who has had enough. Years of frustration are apparent as Alex (played by Elizabeth Cotter, Trumpocalypse, Destination, Z Nation) returns to her hometown to bury her mother. Instead, she becomes enraged as she battles a ring of violent organ smugglers.
A criminal underworld is running an organ harvesting operation and her mother’s body is up next up processing. Alex sets out to fight to reclaim her mother, save her sister’s life and overcome a lifetime of self-doubt. It’s the sudden death of her estranged mother that shakes Alex from a suicidal spiral, returning home to where she vowed to never set foot again.
Alex’s relationship with her mother is fraught with past trauma, an abusive relationship with Travis (Ryan Postell) and separation from younger sister, Jenny (Emily Gately). She is back now, but is fed up about how she has been treated by men. She doesn’t like being talked down-to, is over patriarchy and the misogyny.
This type of storytelling can be off-putting, but the reason why become clear as the film develops.
Director Hall, who has also composed the music and done the cinematography, actually shows just how bleakly comic Burn It All really is. The message is loud and clear for the viewers, and Alex also takes the opportunity to throw in a few good one-liners. Being a stuntwoman, Cotter is completely in her element in the action scenes!
