This story would make for an excellent 30 minute episode in an anthology series – like a Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents, back when they had those, and I wish they still did.
Alas, as a 90 minute film, Digging to Death doesn’t fare quite as well. Working off the strong foundation of its narrative core saves it from being a bust, and it has its moments, but it’s a little circular.
David Vanowen (Ford Austin) is recently divorced and moving into his own pad. For some reason he has chosen quite a large house on a large plot of land as his new abode. When his adult daughter pays a visit and helps him bring in some moving boxes, they find a one hundred dollar bill on the floor. What luck! Let’s go to dinner!
Not so fast. While digging out a hole for a septic tank (that could have been a horror film all by itself, ew) David’s shovel hits something solid. It’s a cover to another hole that contains a dead man…and 3 million dollars.
What to do? Stealing the money from a grave wouldn’t be cool, but it’s on his property and the dead guy has no use for it. So, David goes through a series of nightmares and jump scares where the dead man is in his house (or is he?) while trying to decide what to do. He starts to spend some of it – not all, just a little.
Meanwhile, his work life is falling apart. He’s that close to being promoted at a video game company, but his lack of sleep and constant haunting, whether by something real or imagined, has turned him into a burned out loser. Every day he gets worse and, maybe it’s just me, he starts looking more and more like Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
David descends so far that he ends up killing…someone. Or multiple people.
Written and directed by Michael P. Blevins, the film has a couple of nice laughs, and no big scares, but as a creepy thriller, it isn’t horrible. There are two well-known character actors who have been in dozens and dozens of films between them, but they’re only given extended cameos here. I’d have liked to see more of Ken Hudson Campbell and Richard Riehle because their presence adds some weight to the film.
Digging to Death premieres on DVD and Digital June 1 from Uncork’d Entertainment.
