Movie Review – ‘Cry for the Bad Man’ is Southern Gothic in a grindhouse package

Marsha (Camille Keaton) is a widow out to keep what’s hers after an attempt to run her off her property, in Cry for the Bad Man (2020). Six months after the death of her husband, land developers want to buy her property and she’s refusing to budge. She visited by three hired guns, or at least the best of what the town can come up with in the developer’s trigger-happy sons, and threatened to be removed. That night when they come to enforce their threats of eviction, she’s armed for bear.

The whole backstory Cry for the Bad Man and plot of the movie is told in the first 20 minutes, and the rest of the hour is shotguns, gut shots, and a lot of Southern-style negotiation with bullets. Marsha refuses to move, not because her she and her husband lived and he died there, but because it’s something she built and she’s not about to be forced put. Wayne refuses to back down, not because her land is necessary, but because his ego won’t let him. Pride is the theme of this movie, and it has a very expensive price tag.

Cry for the Bad Man is really quite good. It’s 74 minutes of poor planning, smooth-talking, and debutant steel. The writing is very good, the cinematography is good, it looks as smooth as big brother and head toughie, Wayne (Scott Peeler), talks. Wayne is “a fight in search of an insult,” says his dad (Mark Poppleton) and that’s a great line. He can’t help but see his plan to violently force widow Marsha to accept the deal through to the end. Even in the face of loss and questions that can’t be answered, Wayne can’t give up the fight. His brothers, Billy (Christopher James Forrest) and Derrick (Eric Dooley) are along because it’s something to do, but neither of them expects the violent shenanigans Wayne has planned. In Marsha’s corner is her daughter, Helen (Karen Konzen) who looks like her mother taught her the basics of not taking crap from men.

For a short, practically one-set movie, everything about it hums with the tension and gory surprises. Writer-director, Sam Farmer, who’s a regional cinema legend in Florida, proves his behind the camera chops.  Cry for the Bad Man is shot extremely well, and I love it when a movie uses music judiciously as a set-piece, not a showpiece. which adds to the surprises There’s a lot more talking than there needed to be, and it bogs down the action just a little bit, however as confrontation pictures go, it’s a small slight on a grand canvas.

Cry for the Bad Man is Unrated, but if I had to guess, I’d say Rated R for swears, shots to head, shots to the gut, shots to the hand, knives to the hand, slapping, punching, and lots and lots of blood. The practical effects were really very good.