Well-constructed 'Yellowbrickroad' leads to confounding finale

We're only two films into AMC Theaters' exclusive summer horror movie series “Bloody Disgusting Selects,” and I must admit, I'm impressed.

Between last month's Armageddon plague drama “Rammbock” and this month's psychological brain twister “Yellowbrickroad,” the series has avoided the expected slate of mindless splatter films in favor of solid genre offerings.

Bloody violence does appear, but it comes in unexpected moments where the suggestion of what's happening packs more shock value than lingering shots of graphic carnage.

“Yellowbrickroad” was directed by Andy Mitton and Jesse Holland, reportedly as a throwback to the character-driven horror films of the 1970s.

In 1940, the citizens of a tiny New Hampshire hamlet called Friar all decide to go on a walk into the woods. Most of them never return.

To find out what happened — and to have something to write a book about — Teddy Barnes (Michael Laurino) assembles a team of investigators to retrace the steps of the ill-fated villagers.

Local residents of Friar refuse to give Barnes any information. They won't even steer him to the beginning of the mysterious trail taken by the missing townspeople. Barnes figures the trail starts where the local Rialto movie theater sits. How can that be?

Finally, a movie usher agrees to take the investigators to the start — marked as “yellowbrickroad” — if they agree to take her along.

The deliberate, measured plot of “Yellowbrickroad” lets us get to know the searchers before slowly ratcheting up the elements that not only test their nerves, but drive some into a homicidal frenzy.

They become lost, disoriented and desperate. Even with a compass, they keep returning to the same places. One finds an old hat. Does it possess the power to change its wearer?

Then there's the music. Early 20th-century party music that plays nonstop through the trees and nobody can find its source. Nobody can turn it down or off.

“Yellowbrickroad” owes an obvious debt to “The Blair Witch Project” — minus the now-cliched first-person jumpy-cam style of shooting. (“Blair,” in turn, owes “Cannibal Holocaust” a debt as well.)

This is overall a smart and well-constructed horror drama that doesn't pander to cheap thrills. The largely unknown cast members acquit themselves well as they transition from ordinary people into frightening id-driven characters.

I should mention that the film doesn't feel the need to actually explain things. So we're left to ponder the whys and hows without much background information.

Ultimately, “Yellowbrickroad” takes us to a disappointing, underwhelming finale that, once you think about it, does provide a bookending device to the story.

But it's an insufficient, confounding close that never addresses the basic questions that the film's engaging premise poses for us along the journey.

<b>“Yellowbrickroad”</b>

★ ★ ½

<b>Starring: </b>Cassidy Freeman, Anessa Ramsey, Lee Wilkof

<b>Directed by: </b>Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton

<b>Other: </b>A Collective release. Rated R for drug use, language, sexual situations and violence. 98 minutes.