Indie Horror Hall of Fame: Resolution (2013)

When I look back on the independent horror scene during the early 2010s, I still believe that one of the best movies to emerge during that time is Resolution from filmmaking duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. One of the greatest examples of low-budget, high-ambition genre storytelling released in the 21st century, Benson and Moorhead crafted a transformative exploration of storytelling with Resolution that still feels revolutionary after more than a decade.

Not only does Resolution examine our relationship with media in all of its forms and asks us to contemplate how we interact with the creative process, but it’s also a heartfelt indie drama infused with Lovecraftian horrors that dared to defy typical cinematic categorization altogether. Made on a budget of only $20,000, Resolution is proof positive that what really matters the most when it comes to making movies isn’t relying on bucket loads of money (although it never hurts to have when its in the right hands) — it’s being able to bring a mix of passion, ingenuity, and determination together on the big screen so that you can see your creative vision fulfilled.

At the start of Resolution, we meet Michael Danube (Peter Cilella), who mysteriously receives a map and a video of his estranged best friend Chris's (Vinny Curran) latest out-of-control antics, which include shooting guns in the air, doing meth, and engaging in all sorts of other self-destructive behavior. Realizing he needs to step up and make things right with the friend that he left behind for married life, Michael heads out to the latest place where Chris has been squatting — a makeshift cabin built on the edge of a Native American reserve.

Michael arrives at where Chris is hiding out for some confrontational tough love, but his plans for an intervention for his pal aren’t exactly well-received by Chris. But rather than allow him to continue to self-destruct, Michael handcuffs Chris to a pipe in the wall, and forces him to come to terms with the detrimental path he’s been traveling for some time now. The thing is they are both at their own respective crossroads: Chris needs to get clean and sober or he's doomed to become another statistic, and Mike is on the verge of fatherhood, so he's decided that this is his one last shot to try and get his long-time friend on the right track before bigger things begin to take a precedent in his life.

But as these buddies work on reconnecting and getting Chris clean, there’s a force that seems to be playing games with them. Michael begins to discover various forms of media around the area that pique his interest: journals left behind by a French research team, old records, and film reels — at least that’s way it all starts out. But things begin to ramp up as this unknown entity’s manipulations get more extreme: carvings on walls, videos that foretell of a horrific future for the friends, and there is even a chilling audio CD waiting for Michael in his car that captures the sounds of he and his friend being murdered by the man who owns the property where Chris has been hanging out.

As it turns out, Michael and Chris are caught in the crosshairs of something so much bigger than themselves, and their journeys in Resolution culminate in an epic fashion that challenges everything we know and understand about the power of storytelling.

Before we get into all that, I think it’s important to discuss the heart of Resolution — the friendship and bond shared between Michael and Chris. The film does a wonderful job of examining the boundaries of modern friendships and demonstrates how far some will go for someone they love even when the rest of the world has given up on them (you may have to tase them a few times though like Michael does to Chris, though). I think it’s also so great how Resolution digs deeper into that dynamic by exploring how hard it can be when one friend moves into a new life stage where they’re getting married, starting a family, and embracing their adulthood, and the other person is somewhere else altogether, potentially being left behind.

We see as the finale in Resolution unfolds that the shared connection between Mike and Chris is strong, but for as devoted as these two dudes are to each other, the film provides us with some good food for thought about those moments when you have to determine hhow to let certain friends go and why that can be is such a difficult decision to make, no matter how much you love and care for that other person.

Michael nearly hits that point in Resolution too, where he's just ready to walk and leave his buddy behind. He's on the phone talking to his wife, and while he's hiding the truth about how messed up everything is from her, we can see that he's nearly at a breaking point as Chris just cannot seem to be bothered enough to care about what his longtime friend is doing for him. Chris is snarky, he lies, he does everything he can to try and break Mike's resolve because he cannot be bother enough to care about anyone else when it’s evident that he doesn't even give a shit about himself.

I do think it's telling that Sara the dog is the one figure in Resolution that Chris genuinely seems to care about — even above himself — and once she's killed, this seems to be a huge turning point for his character, and for the film’s story as well.

When Michael sets out to find Sara’s true owner, that’s when he encounters the enigmatic Byron, played by brilliant and underappreciated character actor Bill Oberst Jr., living nearby in a trailer. It’s Byron (and some fun hallucinogenic drugs) who blows the door wide open in Resolution as Mike (and we viewers) learn that the area they are in is controlled by a force who has an unquenchable demand for stories, and that every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

In that moment, Resolution becomes something else that is working on an entirely different level that we really weren’t seeing at the time, and rarely have seen since (the biggest other standout of that era being The Cabin in the Woods).

In any case — holy shit.

I can remember the very first time I watched Resolution — it was a DVD screener, and right after Byron finished his speech, I had to pause the movie because I felt like my mind had been cracked wide open. Not only because it made me immediately contemplate my own sense of creativity, but also how I interact and deliberate all of the stories that I experience in all their forms —filmic and otherwise — but also because these concepts that Byron posits during his conversation with Michael in Resolution immediately reminded me of the brilliant themes at play in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. And boy, do I love New Nightmare.

But Moorhead and Benson aren’t retreading the same territory as Craven here at all — and that’s evident in how everything plays out in Resolution’s final moments. I won’t get too specific here, just in case someone reading this hasn’t had the joy of experiencing Resolution yet (it’s currently streaming for free on Tubi, Plex and The Roku Channel) but what I will say is that there’s one line in particular from the film that has stuck with me for more than a dozen years now because it is just so beautifully profound:

Can we try it another way?

That’s a phrase that pops up in my head regularly and it still hits me as hard now as it did back the first time I heard it.

When it comes to films that have the kind of cinematic audacity that Resolution does, where it leaves me ruminating on the storytelling process and challenges me (in a good way) to ponder about my relationship to these stories and characters that I have spent so much time with throughout my life, those are the types of movies that immediately will become part of my own cinematic DNA. And Resolution has very much become part of the fabric of my very own movie fandom.

It’s a film that I have endlessly (real ones know what I did there) recommended to so many people for more than a decade now and I was so incredibly honored to have been able to bring Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead's to the big screen in March 2013 for the film festival I used to do (it ran for only 2 years so it wasn’t a big deal) way back in the day — CineMayhem.

It’s also been incredible to watch the evolution of both Aaron and Justin’s careers throughout the last 12 years or so, as they have continued to blaze their own wholly unique trail as storytellers in both the world of independent cinema and while getting to play around in the Marvel sandbox on series like Loki, Daredevil: Born Again, and Moon Knight. It’s always so cool when innovative and forward-thinking creatives get the chance to do things on their terms but are rewarded for their immense talents as well.

Oh, and for any Resolution newbies out there, I’d highly recommend following up the film with the rest of Benson & Moorhead’s filmography, specifically Spring (it is streaming for free on Tubi and Fandango At Home) and The Endless (currently streaming for free on Tubi, Plex, Pluto TV, and The Roku Channel).