The Buildout

by Daniel Baldwin

When The Buildout opens, a religious group known as “The Clergy” is set on establishing a home in a remote part of a desert. Vague references are made to the fact that they’ve moved around a few times in search of a place where they can find a deep spiritual connection.  Is this dusty and arid middle-of-nowhere locale what they’ve long sought? Given that this is a horror movie, the answer is undoubtedly yes, while also falling into the “Be Careful What You Wish For” category.

Our leads – Hannah Alline (Mayfair Witches) and Jenna Kanell (Terrifier) – are two friends on a road trip who make the unfortunate decision to stop in that same area for a pee break. What follows is what one might call a “vibes movie”, where mood is tantamount to plot-based events. If you can roll with that, The Buildout may just be for you.

This is the feature-length debut of writer/director Zeshaan Younus and it’s an impressive one. Shot with a small cast and crew for pennies on the dollar, it still manages to pack both an aural and a visual punch. The footage is a mix of more classic anamorphic cinematography and camcorder vlogs, giving it a distinctive feel. The sound mix is full and immersive. From a technical standpoint, it’s exactly what one hopes to be gifted when they sit down with an indie genre film: something that looks like it cost way more to make than it actually did.

While the script falters a bit, Alline and Kanell are great together, which smooths over the film’s narrative deficiencies. The otherworldliness of what occurs to their characters brings to mind the early films of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. The Buildout might not be quite as impactful as their feature debut, Resolution, but it’s playing in similar terrain. Enough so that it makes one excited to see what Younus might conjure up next.