Diablo (2015 film)


Diablo is a 2015 Canadian-American Revisionist Western psychological thriller film produced, co-written and directed by Lawrence Roeck and starring Scott Eastwood, Walton Goggins, Camilla Belle and Danny Glover. It was the first Western starring Eastwood, the son of Western icon Clint Eastwood.

Synopsis

A young Civil War veteran loses his home to a fire and is forced on a desperate journey to save his kidnapped wife. The year is 1872 and Jackson, a former member of Union General Sherman's army, embarks on an odyssey of both rescue and revenge. At nearly every turn he encounters a mysterious figure named Ezra who delights in tormenting him, while gleefully murdering any witnesses to their encounters.
But things are not at all what they seem. It develops that Jackson committed countless atrocities under Sherman's command and may have actually experienced some sort of psychotic break in the process. What Jackson perceives and believes may be completely disconnected from the reality of what is actually happening around him.

Cast

The film was released at the San Diego film festival on October 2, 2015.

Critical reception

The film was panned by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 19%, based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 3.47/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 35 out of 100, based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
The AV Club calls it "edious despite its brief running time." Odie Henderson at RogerEbert.com writes that the film ”goes for shock value with its twists, but plays its hand far too early. Our knowledge of events and of character force us to question why the people in the climactic scenes act as stupid as they do." And Variety says: "The twist...isn’t without promise.... Yet it’s nonetheless clumsily handled, and the last stretch of the film goes south in a hurry."

Accolades

Diablo won the Best Narrative Feature award at the San Diego International Film Festival in 2015.