If you love the killer Netflix action thriller “Rebel Ridge” (and, let’s face it, you should), then you’ll almost certainly be interested in a top-notch revenge thriller from the same director that’s hiding out on Prime Video. Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, “Blue Ruin” isn’t your typical revenge thriller. Instead, it blends arthouse aesthetics and human drama with pulpy exploitation action to create a truly unique experience — one which you can immerse yourself in right now on Prime Video.
Saulnier’s first feature was the 2007 horror comedy “Murder Party,” which he wrote, directed, cast, and shot. Like “Blue Ruin,” the film starred his friend Macon Blair and earned Saulnier solid reviews even if it faded into obscurity fairly quickly. For his next project, the director turned to Kickstarter to raise a fairly modest $35,000. The rest he covered by “maxing out credit cards, refinancing homes, and cashing in retirement accounts.” That’s according to the Kickstarter page, on which Saulnier sold the movie as “a revenge film equally suited for art house cinephiles and die-hard genre fans.” On that same page, he promised to deliver “a deeply human story” while also “crash[ing] a stretch limousine into a ditch.” That was evidently enough for Saulnier to exceed his $35,000 goal by $2,828, and “Blue Ruin” went into production.
The film follows a tortured man who sets out for revenge on the individual who killed his parents. It sounds like a straightforward thriller, but Saulnier made good on his promise to blend genre filmmaking with an indie drama sensibility, and the result was a movie that earned widespread praise. It isn’t as well remembered as some of the films Saulnier made in the years after, but it should be. Luckily, you can help remedy that by streaming it on Prime Video.
Blue Ruin is a revenge thriller unlike any other
Debuting in 2013, “Blue Ruin” is a revenge thriller with several twists and an indie drama heart. Alongside the graphic violence that Jeremy Saulnier would become known for with his future films (most notably, the gory horror flick “Green Room” starring Anton Yelchin and Patrick Stewart), the movie’s bleak Southern Gothic sensibility is punctuated by moments of humor and genuine emotion, making for a thriller unlike any other.
“Blue Ruin” follows Macon Blair’s Dwight Evans, a Delaware drifter who’s awoken from sleeping in his dilapidated car (the titular blue ruin) by a police officer who gives him some bad news. Wade Marshall Cleland Jr., the man who murdered Dwight’s parents 20 years prior, is set to be released from prison. Dwight then decides to return to his Virginia hometown, where he initially proves inept at embarking on a vengeful rampage, breaking a gun and injuring himself while trying to slash a tire.
But as the film goes on, he becomes more adept at his mission. More than that, the movie evolves beyond a genre exercise, exploring the lingering effects of trauma and grief on Dwight and his sister, Sam (Amy Hargreaves). What’s more, though it revels in the on-screen violence, it also refuses to endorse it as a legitimate solution to Dwight’s problems. It’s very well done, which is why it’s not surprising to find that critics loved “Blue Ruin.”
Blue Ruin is one of the best revenge thrillers you’ve never seen
“Blue Ruin” was clearly a labor of love for Jeremy Saulnier and Macon Blair, who grew up together in Virginia and returned there to shoot the movie. It gives the film an almost elegiac aura which, judging by Saulnier’s comments to Rolling Stone, comes from his own dismay at seeing the environments of his childhood slowly disappear. “When we started to go back through these areas, I just felt this deep emotion,” Saulnier told the outlet. “My hometown is being overdeveloped, and it’s disappearing — the house I grew up in could very well be sold the next couple years. I needed to archive these spaces, just from a personal standpoint.”
Alongside examining the limits of violence and the everlasting devastation of grief, then, “Blue Ruin” is also infused with this morose wistfulness, making it a truly unique entry in the revenge thriller genre. In that sense, when Saulnier asked potential Kickstarter supporters to put their faith in his team and promised, “We will come through,” he wasn’t lying.
Thankfully, the critics rewarded him with stellar reviews. Writing for BFI, Trevor Johnston suggested that “we could be looking at the emergence of a major new filmmaker” — which, of course, we were. Mark Kermode similarly called the film a “viscerally intelligent thriller” that “takes a new stab at an old genre with refreshingly distressing results” in his Observer review. And the positive responses kept coming, adding up to a 96% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. “Blue Ruin” might even become known as one of the best revenge movies ever in years to come. It’s certainly one of the best revenge movies you’ve never seen, which is why you should finally check it out on Prime Video asap.
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