Henry Czerny

(On Cable TV, October 2021) It’s amusing that what could be seen as a worrisome warning sign ends up being one of The Righteous’s main assets. I’m talking about the decision to shoot a sparse low-budget rural horror film in black-and-white, of course—often an announcement of pretentious intensions artistiques, it actually works really well after a while: writer-director-star Mark O’Brien knows what he’s doing, and the combination between the black-and-white cinematography and the dreamlike imagery is not accidental. The film does take a very long while to get going, though, as an older man burdened with grief sees his tranquil rural existence disturbed by the arrival of a wounded young man who starts questioning him and making things happen in a very disturbing fashion. It takes too long to set up the mystery—even at 97 minutes, The Righteous is too slow for its own good. But there are a few great moments along the way, as the nature of what’s going on becomes obvious and the film somehow ends up in apocalyptic territory in time for a grand-visual finale. Henry Czerny is quite good as the protagonist, his presence helping viewers forget that it’s a low-budget film with a handful of characters and a very constrained shooting location. Still—the images are quite nice at times, the black-and-white cinematography doesn’t simply look like an absence of colours, and the dramatic duel between the two main characters earns our attention. The Righteous is still somewhat of a niche film when it gets into spiritual discussions in a world that doesn’t quite make sense (and thinking too hard about that does nullify a bit of the dramatic weight of it all), but it’s not badly executed.