Movie Review: SNOW VALLEY

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: April 12th, 2024 / 01:04 AM

SNOW VALLEY movie poster | ©2024 Gravitas Ventures

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Rachel Michiko Whitney, Cooper van Grootel, Tom Williamson, David Lambert, Paige Elkington, Ali Fumiko Whitney, Barbara Crampton, Zachary Bird
Writer: Brandon Murphy
Director: Brandon Murphy
Distributor: Gravitas Ventures
Release Date: April 2, 2024 (digital)

Technically, SNOW VALLEY could be described as a contemporary Gothic horror comedy. That would give the wrong impression, though. SNOW VALLEY isn’t making fun of Gothic horror so much as it is having fun within that genre’s conventions. It’s not a parody, but rather a dark comedy of manners that overlaps with lethal danger.

Writer/director Brandon Murphy begins the film with a child drawing a very good portrait of a woman who is nowhere to be seen at first.

The woman turns out to be Laura Pell (Rachel Michiko Whitney). Laura is nowhere near the child doing the drawing, but instead is in the passenger seat of her boyfriend Heath Jacobson’s (Cooper van Grootel) vehicle as they drive through a beautiful snowy landscape.

Their destination is Heath’s parents’ “ski cabin,” which is actually a sixteen-bedroom chalet in Utah. Laura is taken aback. She had no idea Heath was so wealthy, even though they’ve been dating for a year. Heath has arranged for a covert ring delivery, and proposes romantically. It’s all very Hallmark-movie, and seems too good to be true, which of course it is.

There is a lot of antique mining paraphernalia in the chalet, as Heath’s father collects it. This place was a mining town before an accident destroyed it, and a ski resort was built over the collapsed tunnels.

This eventually goes exactly where you think it will, but there’s so much else happening by then that it’s part of the mix rather than the main point.

There are guests that Laura wasn’t expecting, a guest that nobody was expecting, and a lot of secrets and revelations all around. Laura herself, while a grad student, has an uncommon area of study. Naturally, a snow storm comes in and blocks all the roads.

Filmmaker Murphy pulls of the extremely difficult trick of keeping us unsure of who we should trust and who’s an actual menace until SNOW VALLEY is good and ready to reveal it. So many movies try this and fail at it that it feels like there should be some sort of certificate of achievement for success.

Murphy and his adroit cast also avoid the trap of having any of the characters be too self-aware. Everyone seems reasonable to themselves, no matter how unreasonable the other characters find them.

Whitney keeps everything grounded as the optimistic but clear-headed Laura. Van Grootel deftly handles all aspects of his Prince Charming role. Tom Williamson is a standout as Heath’s volatile childhood friend Ed.

There are aspects of modern commerce and New Age psychology here (Laura’s studies sound like they may have a basis in real investigations). The Gothic aspects are partly supernatural, partly the specifics of the storytelling, and partly just the fact that we’re in a gargantuan old house.

SNOW VALLEY is mostly entertaining, building in its insanity without camping it up too much. It is a great shame that this is Murphy’s only film as a director; he passed away at age forty-three while it was in post-production. Based on the evidence here, he had a promising career ahead of him.

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