Plank Face (2016)

Plot

While hiking in the woods with his girlfriend, Max is kidnapped by a group of feral women who are determined to make him one of their own.

Review

Judging by the poster, you’d be forgiven if you assumed Scott Schirmer’s Plank Face was a slasher flick. While there are a few moments of brutality and some tropes of that style of horror film, Plank Face is a slow paced horror drama. Because of the feral nature of a majority of the cast, the movie is light on dialogue. Despite this the cast do an amazing of showing a range of emotion and character development through guttural sounds and physicality. This is especially true of the Bride (Brigid Macaulay) and Bunny Girl (Alyss Winkler) who have no actual dialogue, but have definitive character traits and personalities. Nathan Barrett  also does an outstanding job as Max/Plank face. His role is a nice character study of what happens when a man gives into his more primal instincts. Beyond the casts’ portrayal, the film has beautiful cinematography and a perfect score.

While the movie is a slow burn and definitely not for everyone, I enjoyed it and I think it’s a masterfully crafted movie.

Gaming Material

Even though the movie isn’t a slasher, I think feral humans make great slashers so I’ve started Plank Face for my free roleplaying game, Slashers & Survivors. 

Plank Face

HP: 25

Evade: 15

Armor Points: 1

Bonus: +4 to Attack, +3 to Damage

Attack: Axe (1d8 damage)

Special Traits: Advantage on stealth related rolls
Special Attack: Growl (CM+CON vs DC 15); all foes within 10 feet lose their next action.