I have to say, I was going to skip out on Peppergrass. The description felt like another small story of home invaders discovering what’s inside is far dangerous than they are. And that is a trope I had already watched more than once in People Under The Stairs, Nefarious, Killers Within, and of course, Don’t Breathe. But then, out of nowhere, I got an announcement from Black Fawn saying they will take care of the distribution, and my curiosity was piqued. As it turned out, it wasn’t what the description made it sound like, but was that change for the better?
Eula Baek (Chantelle Han from Black Summer and Circle of Steel) is starting to get desperate. Eula is pregnant and the COVID lockdown has wiped off most of the business from her cafe, Peppergrass. It has not done favor to Morris’ (Charles Boyland from Goosebumps and Becky) bar either.
So instead of applying for any of the various government aid programs, they opted to trifle a priceless truffle off from Captain Reuben Lom (Michael Copeman from Scanners III: The Takeover and Death to Smoochy), a recluse veteran who knew her father.
Right from the start, I had problems with Peppergrass. The two leads, Eula and Morris, must be among the most unlikable characters ever, and unfortunately, we spend almost the entire movie with these two. And while you can get away with making your protagonists criminals, they usually have to be likeable and charismatic. Instead, she’s a dull and insipid blanket, and he’s a whining asshole bitter about the lockdown and his businesses but still has plenty of cash for cigarettes and cocaine. So when their plans collapse, it becomes increasingly difficult to care.
Directors Chantelle Han and Steven Garbas, working from Garbas and Philip Irwin’s screenplay, have the basic structure of a successful thriller. There is a crime gone wrong, a crazy angry victim, a medic in the woods, and a non sympathetic cold girl. But they can’t seem to put it all together. No one sympathizes with the story, and Rueben is, for all intents and purposes, a non character. There’s no one to relate to, and practically nothing of substance takes place.
After getting moderately excited, we eloquently waste twenty minutes trudging through the woods alongside Eula as she tries her best to avoid dying out of frostbite before she can find help. Sadly, switching from a home invasion/crime movie to a survival thriller does not do much for Peppergrass. At least go the extra mile and show a few tracking shots where Rueben is shadowing her in the pitch black woods. Now that would have added some suspense. Instead, the only suspense we get is whether or not she can actually force herself to consume a worm.
I would have enjoyed Peppergrass more if it had labeled itself as a drama or at least had a more accurate synopsis. But as it is now, it leaves a sense of expectancy of something thrilling and chilling that it lacks in. For the most part, it doesn’t even attempt. By the time we begin to hear a drunken campfire story of how Rueben is a notorious beast and how many bodies he may have lurking in his basement the film is almost done. As far as I am concerned, it’s a setup for a final showdown and way too little too late.
More than anything else, Peppergrass feels like a study of a dull character. To my disappointment, It does have a few good shots of the forest at night, but dark forests on their own are not eerie.
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