A spooky movie set in the Oklahoma panhandle so you know you are going to see at least one cow. Sarah Paulson has a new family (cause we all know how well she did with her family in Run) and is ready to keep everyone safe (this time). Smart use of sign language for deaf character but also to tell secrets between characters. Child actors exceeded expectations. A rather bleak but still fascinating look at the old times and the horrors that come with it, both fictional and non.
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As someone who has been to the Oklahoma panhandle, I can tell you, all she is is flat and windy. In some ways it is the perfect setting for a horror, in others it isn’t, like how you can see for literally miles but this movie makes up for that with the severe dust storms that limit vision which makes everything feel much spookier. Actually, dust is low-key the villain of this story, that and the Grey Man who is made up of dust (so there). The other villain we won’t discover until later so just keep watching (or in your case, reading). Margaret and her two daughters Rose and Ollie have their home, home on the plains and they are waiting for their father to return from work (like that will ever happen). Dust storms are deadly as ever as it’s the 1930’s and times are hard.
Rose tells Ollie the story of the Grey Man, a killer who was so evil he disappeared into dust and can be breathed in to make you do his bidding! Ollie is scared but she isn’t the only one who believes in this mystical man, Mama Margaret starts to suspect he might be real after hearing some suspicious rumors. There was also a whole man who broke into their barn and threatened them but that has less to do with the Grey Man and more to do with them just being really unlucky. Seriously, getting accosted by that stranger really messed them up, especially Margaret, who is a full grown adult who believes in this boogeyman figure (and I’m an adult who can’t figure out if he is real or not in this film yet).
They try to go out but Margaret is seriously not adjusting to anything well, she is freaking out all the time and rarely leaves the house. They finally go to a dance but Margie loses it completely ranting on and on about the Grey Man, Rose tries to back her up but she’s too busy swan diving off of the deep end. When they get home Margaret is worse somehow and Rose figures out that Mama Margie is our other villain but now Marge wants everyone to have a hang out in heaven (yikes). With very clever thinking Rose tricks Margaret into going outside during a dust storm and then cuts her lead rope, stranding her and leaving her to die, saving both her and Ollie. The movie ends with them headed probably East since Rose spoke of wanting to see Philadelphia (Philly, represent) but all we know and care about is that they saw green, green grass finally after all that dust.
