PopHorror Let's Get Scared
When I heard Ted Geoghegen had a new film coming out, I got pretty excited. While I wasn’t as big of a fan of We Are Still Here as some people, I loved the final act and was curious to see what Mr. Geoghegen had in store for horror fans in the future. That new project is Mohawk, a film that mixes a historical setting with horror and revenge elements.
Mohawk is the latest film from Ted Geoghegan (We Are Still Here 2015) from a script he wrote with Grady Hendrix. The film stars Kaniehtiio Horn (Hemlock Grove), Ezra Buzzington (The Hills Have Eyes 2006), Eamon Farren (Chained 2012), Justin Rain (Fear The Walking Dead), Jon Huber, Robert Longstreet (I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore 2017), Noah Segan (Deadgirl 2008, Camera Obscura 2017), Ian Colletti (Preacher), and Sheri Foster (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt).
Late in the War of 1812, a young Mohawk woman and her two lovers battle a squad of American soldiers hell-bent on revenge.
What I Liked
The characters were very well done. Without a ton of exposition, you are informed of the history of all the characters (the love between the heroes and the camaraderie between the soldiers). The heroes are easy to root for while still being underdogs. They are outmanned and outarmed, even with the home field advantage. The villains, while being suitably scummy, are also pretty sympathetic. They are just trying to get revenge for the deaths of their men. Ezra Buzzington makes for an intense lead villain, willing to kill everyone in his path to get his revenge. Kaniehtiio Horn is a wonderful hero. She loses everything, but she is a fighter and a force to be reckoned with. As always, it was nice seeing Noah Segan and, in a pretty bleak film, he provides some much needed comic relief.
What I Didn’t Like
I really didn’t care much for the ending. While the first 2/3 of the film had a very gritty and real feel to it, the final act veers away from that, adding in some vaguely defined supernatural elements that really didn’t work for me at all.
Final Thoughts
Despite a final act that didn’t quite work for me, Mohawk is still a very entertaining film. Full of bleak mood, sympathetic heroes and villains, great acting and some brutal violence, Mohawk is a film that should please fans of Geoghegen’s previous projects, as well as lovers of revenge and cross-genre films.
