Jenn Wexler’s The Ranger confirms that punk’s not dead

Jenn Wexler’s punk-rock indie film, The Ranger, is a great new entry into the “stay out of the woods” sub-genre of horror.

With a killer soundtrack featuring The Avengers, Dayglo Abortions, Fang, etc; awesome costume design, and venomous attitudes, this in your face slasher flick espouses the ethos and wildness of punk kids more than any film since Penelope Spheeris’ Suburbia.

When I was a teenager, punk music and the friends that I made from going to shows was my salvation. I was never popular at school and my family didn’t “get” me at all. The fiery angst of punk music and the people in the punk scene is perfect for young people. Your hormones are all out of whack, you hate everything, everything’s embarrassing or unfair, so the rebellious energy of punk rock gives power to those who feel powerless.

The Ranger is a horror film of course, but the reason I love it so much is because it is absolutely a punk movie. It goes in the canon of holy punk iconography with films such as Suburbia, Jubilee, and Repo Man. Additionally, I would say it definitely has a spiritual sibling in the film Green Room. Unlike Green Room, however, the energy in The Ranger is not as dark and serious as Jeremy Saulnier’s masterpiece, despite the events of the film.

“We are the same” – Photo via Glass Eye Pix

The film opens at a show of the band Rotten UK. Chelsea (Chloe Levine; Transfiguration, The Defenders) and her boyfriend Garth (Granit Lahu; The Sinner, Abstract Furies) are at a show with their friends Abe (Bubba Weiler; Puzzle) and Jerk (Jeremy Pope in his debut film role). The general vibe of the show is very similar to most that I’ve been to, teens and twenty-something peacocking around, getting drunk and doing random drugs.

These kids love getting high and have a lot of drugs on them. Garth put the drugs in Chelsea’s backpack, and naturally the cops show up. Some pretty bad stuff goes down that I won’t mention, but it has the whole gang on the run, in a heavily spray-painted punk van that they’ve stolen from Amber (Amanda Grace Benitez; All Cheerleaders Die), a big time party girl whose already lost quite a few brain cells from the drugs she’s already done in her life.

The kids end up at Chelsea’s family cabin in the Blackwood Point National Forest, which was the scene of a childhood tragedy she’s still not over. The only reason they end up there is because Garth, who’s honestly not a great boyfriend and is a few words I can’t say since we’re supposed to keep it PG on here.

Since the group is composed of a bunch of punk kids that are in their late teens-early twenties, they’re pretty cavalier with the rules. The forest ranger for Blackwood Point National Forest , the titular “Ranger” (Jeremy Holm; Mr. Robot, House of Cards) does not take kindly to people who don’t obey the guidelines of the National Parks. The kids very quickly discover the hard way that they shouldn’t have littered or been loud or spray painted the trees, while Chelsea discovers something much more important about herself; her true nature.

I can’t say much more about the plot because I actually want you to seek this film out. In a weird way it’s a mix of the best parts of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the Sleepaway Camp films, but with much more heart and soul. I feel like the arc of Chelsea’s character is a metaphor for those who have suffered with PTSD and are afraid to move forward from whatever event in their past shook them to the core.

The Ranger – via EW

I also can’t say again how awesome the soundtrack to this film is. There are songs from Rotten UK, Fang, Dayglo Abortions, and The Avengers (the English band, not Robert Downey Jr and Chris Hemsworth singing about shwarma). There are a lot of real punks behind and in front of the camera on this production. With The Ranger, I think it’s safe to say that punk’s not dead, it’s very much alive.