Jug Face (2013) #377

"Jug Face" is a refreshing and unique horror film that I came across while searching around the Internet for recently released movies. Although it had a limited budget, the film looks and sounds beautiful, choosing to use simple camera tricks and a strong story and well developed characters rather than trying to scare the audience with gore and frightful visions. The script was strong enough that it won the Slamdance Screenwriting Competition in 2011, which drew the attention of the producers who would help it become a full length feature. Sean Young and Larry Fessenden ("You're Next" and "I Sell the Dead") were cast as the parents of the main character Ada and as the leaders of their truly backwoods community. Sean Bridgers ("The Woman") was delightful in the role of Dawai, giving the character a real sense of humility, simpleness, and awkwardness as being the chosen "potter" for the community. Finally, Lauren Ashley Carter gives a solid appearance as the main character Ada, the poor girl who has been chosen as the next sacrifice whose life must be given to satisfy the demands of the local "healing pit". This movie reunites Lauren Ashley Carter and Sean Bridgers after they both appeared in 2011's "The Woman".

An extremely superstitious backwoods community worships a mysterious hole that they refer to as the Pit. It heals them when they are sick and soothes them when they need to pray for answers. The Pit also demands sacrifices from the community, placing dim witted Dawai into a deep trance, during which time he crafts detailed jugs. If a jug is created bearing some one's face, that person is sacrificed in front of the entire village at the Pit. When Ada finds her face on the newest jug that Dawai has crafted, she steals it and hides the jug in the woods. Besides not wanting to die so young, Ada also wants to try to save the life of her unborn child. Unfortunately, the child's father is her own brother, a selfish boy who wants nothing to do with her or the child after she is betrothed to another young man in the community. Ada begins to have gruesome visions and her neighbors and family members begin to be killed by the demonic spirit of the Pit. The longer that she denies the Pit her blood and life, the closer the killings come to her loved ones. A deep family secret is soon revealed and Ada learns what happens when the Pit is denied what is demands.

Ada steals the jug that bears her resemblance, starting a gruesome and deadly chain of events

Dawai shows the jug that he created while in a trance, the face belonging to the next chosen sacrifice

After having his face appear on a jug, a local is then sacrificed to the Pit

Dawai and Ada chained up as offerings to the Pit