My Thoughts on Brute 1976
Brute 1976 is aiming to be a clever throwback to 70s horror, something that nodded to the classics without just copying them, but it often feels like the movie is showing off these influences it’s borrowed from rather than also creating its own identity.
The film follows a group of models wandering into the desert for a pinup shoot, where they stop in what amounts to a junkyard town, and soon they’re being hunted by a collection of cultists in outlandish outfits.
It’s the kind of premise that's fairly simple but can work fine, but the movie doesn’t make a strong case for why you should care about anyone in it, with most of the characters existing only to scream, get captured, or die, which for some people might be fine for this type of movie.
Gigi Gustin’s character, Raquel, does show flashes of personality and courage, but she also spends the majority of the film running and panicking, and you keep hoping the story will let her actually strategize or fight back in clever ways, but those moments end up being pretty rare.
I was also intrigued by the idea that the film might be saying something larger about American history or society, and there are hints that the cult’s motivations are supposed to reflect deeper ideas, which could have been quite interesting, but it never really comes to much.
The killers themselves are also mixed bag, with some of the costumes and masks having a low-budget charm, and there’s a certain creativity in how the cult presents itself, but most of them are fairly generic and derivative.
There’s a Leatherface echo here too, with a few other recognizable nods, and you can tell the filmmakers were trying to pay homage, but the novelty wears off quickly because they’re never given real personality or motive beyond “kill the intruders.”
As for the kills themselves, you get some scenes that are unexpectedly brutal and inventive, but a lot of the other sequences are pretty mild, with some blood squibs and screaming standing in for any real tension, but the practical effects are fairly decent, yet they never fully elevate the experience.
There’s definitely an intriguing idea at the core of Brute 1976, it's just it never fully comes together. The characters are thin, the plot is quite patchy, and the supposed commentary on the country in 1976 never lands.
It could have really benefited from just trusting the premise more, and letting the isolation, the cult, and the desert setting do the work.
And while there are small moments that hint at what could have been, with a particularly well-composed shot here, a clever practical effect there, enough to remind me that the filmmakers were thinking creatively, even if the overall execution falls short.
I don't think the movie is bad enough to dismiss entirely though, and there’s enough gore and oddball creativity to keep a horror fan’s attention, yet it’s frustrating because the good parts are scattered, never forming a complete, satisfying experience, and it is a movie that teases you more than it delivers.
It’s fairly uneven and clumsy in places, and often forgettable, but it’s not without moments that work. It’s the kind of horror that has sparks of originality buried under a lot of familiar tropes, and for someone willing to sit through the uneven middle, there’s probably enough to keep you engaged, if only intermittently.