Alcoholic loner Julian (Michael G. Kehoe) reunites with his estranged son Thomas (William Mann) when he takes him into an isolated forest to search for a missing boy. There are things Julian has not told his son, about the forest they have entered and the mysterious cult that lives within its borders.

Shot on location in Kentucky, Valley of the Horntak is a new independent American horror film directed and co-written by Maxwell Morro. As is often the case with genre pictures produced on a limited budget, it features a combination of good and bad elements. That is the nature of independent horror, and they often deserve a little patience with the weaker aspects in order to appreciate the parts that succeed.

Michael G. Kehoe brings a valuable grounded quality to Julian, giving the film an emotional anchor to which the audience can attach themselves. Kathleen Kinmont is also particularly strong as Natalie, Julian’s ex-wife and mother to Thomas. The film also features cult cinema icon Vernon Wells, best known for his over-the-top appearances in Mad Max 2 and Commando. He is more subdued here, and while he can hardly be accused of subtlety he does bring a certain kind of charm to the picture.

The film is attractively lensed by director of photography Lucas D. Miller, with an unexpected array of carefully composed shots and sequences giving it a visual quality that horror films often lack. There is also a smart and effective use of colour throughout, contrasting between the film’s more conventional elements and the sickly yellows of the toxic fungus that covers the titular valley.

The ideas at play are good ones, including a backwoods religious cult, a strange predatory fungus that litters the landscape, and the backstory of the deranged World War I scientist that developed it in the first place. Specific horror imagery, while slow to reveal itself, is effective and imaginative – particularly during the film’s climax.

These various good elements, however, are let down somewhat by the screenplay by Morro and Erik Weed. Events are quite slow to get going, and a little too much information is withheld from the audience. It becomes somewhat difficult to follow at times, as if there is a wealth of information informing the proceedings but that has been left out of the audience’s purview. There is also a strange subplot involving Natalie recruiting some vigilantes to enter the forest with her and look for Thomas. The scenes feel weirdly unresolved, and raise the question of why they are in the film at all.

It is a flawed film, then, but not an unworthy one. Morro keeps a focus on character and emotion rather than gore or horrific shocks, and generally decent performances do engender an interest in what happens next. There is potential here that makes me not only entertained by the film here, but keen to see how Morro and his crew develop their art in future productions. Fans of low-budget, independent horror should keep Valley of the Horntak – and its writer/director – on their radar.

Valley of the Horntak premiered at the San Antonio Film Festival.