Brigham City

Starring: Richard Dutcher, Matthew Brown, & Carrie Morgan

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

For the past decade, I've heard great things about Brigham City, but I've been very hesitant to see it. Aside from having a mostly unknown cast, the film was written, directed, produced, and starred Richard Dutcher, who created a production company called Mormon Cinema, which only makes Mormon related films. I have found that when a film comes from such a strong religious backing, that it usual has a preachy agenda, and tends to focus more on religion than anything else, but to my surprise, Brigham City does not. The film does takes place in a Mormon community, all the characters are Moron, and there is a religious angel to the film, that includes several scenes in the church, which were slow, but thankfully not overwhelming. The story centers around this small religious community in Utah, that is suddenly rocked by a series of murders. Dutcher, plays the sheriff, a highly respect, deeply religious man, grieving for the loss of his family. His town has always been a paradise and has never faced anything like this before, so the sheriff needs to come up with some pretty interesting ways to catch the killer. Dutcher was excellent in his role, after all he wrote it, and who else is better equipped to play such a role? What I really liked was how different the story was, this wasn't just your typical manhunt for a killer on the loose, there were many different facets to this film that made it unique. What gave Brigham City it's fourth star was the amazing twist at the end that no one will see coming. I've seen a lot of films like this and 9 times out of 10, I have the killer pegged before they are revealed, but this film completely blindsided me, which proves to be just another example of how clever it is. Yes, there is some religion and yes much of the cast is unknown, but I found this film to be fascinating. Brigham City had me captivated and on the edge of my seat, but most important of all it made me think and managed to really surprise me.