Amazing Fantasy Fest 2025 Coverage
Straight on Till Morning review
Thelma & Louise & Leatherface
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Straight on Till Morning
Directed by Craig Ouellette
Written by Neal McLaughlin and Craig Ouellette
Starring Kelsey Christian, Bonnie Jean Tyler, Maria Olsen, Bill Hengstenberg, Michael Gmur and Travis Lincoln Cox
Straight on Till Morning Review
Full disclosure: I’ve never actually seen Thelma & Louise. Everything I know about the nearly 35 year old film comes from pop culture references that are only slightly less old. The only thing I’m sure happens in the movie is that they drive off a cliff at the end. And Brad Pitt is there…but I’m uncertain in what capacity. Brad Pitt isn’t in Straight on Till Morning…and the characters don’t drive off a cliff…though there are certainly points where they wish that they could. Using comparisons to other films probably drives filmmakers crazy…so I want to apologize to co-writer/director Craig Ouellette for leading with this reference. But I feel like there isn’t a better way to elevator pitch Straight on Till Morning than to describe it as such: Thelma & Louise & Leatherface.
Leatherface, of course, is the iconic masked killer from Tobe Hooper’s masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. There are no chainsaws in Straight on Till Morning either…but I swear it’s a fitting description. It’s also a marriage of films that I never knew I needed in my life. A combination that works so incredibly well that Straight on Till Morning quickly established itself as the best feature at this year’s Amazing Fantasy Fest. Last year’s best in show (according to…well…me) was the bloody revenge western They Call Her Death. Watching They Call Her Death filled me with excitement in a way that few festival watches ever had. So, when I tell you that Straight on Till Morning filled me with that excitement…I want you to take that at its full meaning. This isn’t just one to look out for…it’s one to seek out.
The story begins on a desert road decades ago. Newlyweds are cruising along in wedded bliss when they blow a tire. The groom steps out to fix it…his pregnant bride eager to help. A horrible accident occurs, and we cut to decades later where we meet…a musician? Dani Dupree is rocking out at a local bar ahead of a road trip to California. Her bandmates have settled down…and she’s now a solo act. That is until she meets Kaitlin (Bonnie Jean Tyler) waitressing at a diner. Kaitlin is having problems with her husband…and dreams of getting out. When Dani presents her with that opportunity…Kaitlin jumps at it. A montage of the two women traversing the country and falling for each other follows.
What, you may ask, does any of this have to do with a car accident in the 1980s? Straight on Till Morning takes a while to get to that. Doing so is a brilliant choice. Aside from the ominous opening scene…this is a straight up romantic drama through the first act of the story. Now…I don’t think Thelma & Louise was a queer romance. At least…not overtly. I’m pretty sure one was escaping a bad marriage, however. Someone may have even worked at a diner. For the first thirty minutes or so of Straight on Till Morning…the story is basically what pop culture has led me to believe Thelma & Louise was about. Apologies to both films if I have that all wrong. Direct your blame towards pop culture. I still have no idea why they drove off that cliff…but I know why Dani and Kaitlin would have welcomed such an ending once the second act of Straight on Till Morning arrives.
Out of nowhere…and completely unconnected to anything that has been part of their story thus far…Dani and Kaitlin find themselves in a horror movie. A masked killer, his crazy family, an isolated farmhouse. It’s all here. The women awake to find themselves handcuffed and chained in someone’s attic. Not because of the husband…not because of their budding relationship (although the story uses it to showcase the kinds of people they’re dealing with). They aren’t in a horror movie because of anything they’ve done. They simply found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Straight on Till Morning goes full horror from here. Complete with excellent gore, tremendous suspense and pitch-black comedy beats. It’s a violent, harrowing movie with memorable characters and fantastic performances. Straight on Till Morning goes farther into the horror direction than you’d expect from a story that started out as something completely different. This isn’t horror for the sake of mashing genres…it’s horror that cuts another movie off dead in its tracks. It’s also wildly entertaining in a delightfully offbeat way. Thelma, Louise and Leatherface are the throuple we never knew we wanted. Straight on Till Morning is the movie you never knew you needed. You do.
Scare Value
I’ve intentionally left a lot of details about Straight on Till Morning out of this review. You need to experience it all for yourself. What I can say, aside from praising the premise, is that this is a beautifully shot movie that knows how to get exactly where it’s going. It doesn’t pull any punches…and it has a host of new, sick, moves to offer you. Straight on Till Morning is perfectly paced, wonderfully crafted and full of standout moments and performances. Whenever it becomes available to watch at home or in a theater near you…you’re really going to want to do that.
