BLOW THE MAN DOWN CWC D: Bridget Savage Cole, Danielle Krudy. U.S. 91 min. Sep 12, 8:30 pm, TIFF 1 Sep 14, 4 pm, TIFF 2 Sep 15, 9:15 am, TIFF 2. Rating: NNNN
It’s not often you find yourself rooting for a murderer and her accomplice, but in Cole and Krudy’s gripping Blow The Man Down, you do.
Sisters Mary Beth (Morgan Saylor) and Priscilla (Sophie Lowe) have just buried their mother later that night, Mary Beth finds herself flirting with a mysterious man at the local bar. By morning he’s dead and Priscilla is reluctantly helping her cover it up. But nothing stays secret in this quaint, dead-end Maine fishing village. Another suspicious death sets locals against the town’s charismatic yet silently menacing madam. The deaths force all three women’s lives to collide, adding another layer of anxiety that the film does a superb job at sustaining.
Blow The Man Down is well written, well paced and completely suspenseful. The small, stellar cast does a compelling job at drawing you in, but it’s the austere, dutiful Priscilla who’s most captivating. Lowe is capable of wordlessly spinning a range of emotions – sadness, fear, panic and trepidation – in just her eyes. It’s a striking, star-making performance.
