The Ranger
Directed by Jenn Wexler
After a run-in with the cops at a punk show goes sideways, Chelsea and her pals flee the city in search of a place to lay low. Running to the security of Chelsea’s old, abandoned family cabin in the woods, they fall under the watchful eye of an overzealous park ranger who holds a secret from Chelsea’s past. Set to the beat of a killer punk soundtrack (Fang, The Avengers, The Grim, Rotten UK and more) and presented in eye-popping neon colors, Jenn Wexler’s debut offers a modern take on survivalist horror that both celebrates and subverts the genre’s tropes with equal parts humor, glitter and gore. A SHUDDER ORIGINAL. Contains strong language, violence and gore.
Teen punks on the run face off against an unhinged park ranger with an axe to grind.
Cast: Chloë Levine, Granit Lahu, Bubba Weiler, Jeremy Pope, Amanda Grace Benitez
Member Reviews
No likeable characters and a predictable, unoriginal plot. I'd pass on it if I could rewind time.
well that was different but I thoroughly enjoyed it 👍
Not bad, gory and all.
As an NPS Ranger AND a USFS Ranger (see a lot of my fellow rangers reviewing this movie, hi there 👋) this was absolutely hilarious. I have so many questions. I think that they couldn't decide if they wanted to go with USFS or NPS so they settled for this weird mishmash and made a lot of shit up- I mean, this guy is supposed to be the sole LEO (presumably) ranger in an entire national park/forest (idk they kept changing it, what was up with that logo on his car lmfao), judging by the fact that there wasn't even a radio to dispatch. Or a check station. Or a fire watcher. That doesn't happen in... any place, in like, the past 50 years. Maybe Lake Clark. And his cabin was SO nice, I mean, running water? Electricity? No roommates? A basement to keep his captives in? No nosy manager checking in to make sure you haven't broken anything constantly? This guy has gotta be a GS-11 perm. Anyway, definitley showing this to my fellow rangers on the upcoming movie night. Also, I wanna add that I felt the punks were realistic. Amber hinted at her unsupportive parents, Jerk and Abe were gay, and I'm sure Chelsea and Garth have suffered from a lot of trauma. They don't have respect for authority, because why would they? Authority has only ever been cruel to them. I winced when they were painting the trees and starting up a bonfire, but that's stupid 20-something year olds for you. They enjoy their freedom from the system but haven't quite figured out how to live with nature.
As an NPS Ranger, I was laughing my ass off through this movie. The cabin (holy shit, a nice cabin with a basement, running water, and no roommates to walk in on your caged captives? Jackpot!) the radio (where is dispatch?), the gun, the uniform (WHAT IS THAT), the logo (it was, at this point, that I theorized that he killed off all the real rangers and slapped a sticker on his car), the rules he kept spouting off. Like, I think that they couldn't decide if they were going with the NPS or USFS, but I'll give you a hint for anyone whose looking to do another ranger slasher movie: go with USFS if you want a guy seemingly totally isolated and the sole authority in charge of an entire forest. I mean, it's not accurate by any stretch, at least for the past 50 or so years, but at least there's deniable plausibility. motally going to show this movie