In the wake of the ever-growing wokeness of modern entertainment, Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire has dipped its toes and drowned its pocketbook into the perilous waters of pop culture content creation, namely film and children’s entertainment production. Enter, Terror on the Prairie. While they have purchased the U.S. rights to two other movies, this is DailyWire+’s first self-produced feature-length film.

Terror on The Prairie

Hot on the heels of Disney canceling her, Terror on The Prairie stars retired mixed martial artist Gina Carano (Deadpool, The Mandalorian) as Hattie McAllister, a homemaker and homesteader in the Montana wilderness at a time when The Civil War was still fresh in the hearts and minds of many an American. Her husband, Jeb, played by former UFC fighter Donald Cerrone (The Equalizer 2, The Terminal List), was among a group of soldiers who, during the war, mistakenly killed the daughter of a Confederate officer who has now come seeking his vengeance. Since this is a western, it seems apropos that we discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly about this film.

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The Good

From the costumes to the props, the overall production value is top-notch. It’s a beautifully shot film, in which Cinematographer, Steeven Petitteville is the standout star. He perfectly captures the sense of isolation and emptiness of the plains of Montana. While in shows like Yellowstone the sweeping vistas of endless mountains are used to convey a sense of timeless majesty, in Terror on the Prairie they stand like sentinels confining the protagonists to their stead. Petitteville manages to make the openness of the wilderness feel claustrophobic, and nearly every exterior shot is a work of art.

The story is simple and there is very little dialogue. Which is a decidedly good thing for this film (more on this later). Instead, it relies heavily on the atmosphere fostered by Petitteville to carry the emotional through-lines.

The best performance arguably given by the late Heath Freeman (best known for a three-episode stint in the TV show Bones), who played Gold Teeth, (Captain Miller’s right-hand man). He’s a cigar-chomping bandit who, unlike several of the film’s other performers, never seems to feel out of his depth. He is consistent and present in each scene, and, in the little dialogue that he’s given, Freeman delivers with seething menace.

The Bad

The weakest link in this chain is the acting. It’s not fair to blanket it as “bad,” however, it is clear that the talent pool was a bit on the shallow side, and it’s more accurate to say that the performances are inconsistent. On more than one occasion, many of the actors seem at a loss as to what to do with themselves. Their voices lack the conviction of someone who is present in the moment, and they often appear to not know where, or at whom, to look.

As the film’s lead, and therefore the character that sets the tone for the majority of the project, the biggest offender is Gina Carano. Put plainly, she is out of her depth, giving a wooden delivery and having one facial expression and tone for most of the film. As much as being emotionally distant worked for her characters in Deadpool and The Mandalorian, it falls far short of what was needed in this film. Some, maybe a lot, of the blame for this falls on the director, Michael Polish (90 Minutes in Heaven).

So, let’s talk about Terror on The Prairie’s direction. Theatre is a lot like a painting. It takes a number of components, all at their best to create something great. The greatest painter’s work will suffer from inferior brushes, bad paint, and a rotting canvas but not even the best of those components can raise a novice painter to the heights of the art. Unlike a painting, in film and on the stage, it can be a challenge to figure out where the weakness lies. So it is with Terror. However, my gut says that neither the director nor the actors were sufficient to elevate this film out of its C+’ness.

Finally, despite the cinematographer’s best efforts, there are some distracting choices made in this film. In one scene, Carano and her son and daughter have been running for their lives long enough for it to have gone from night to dawn, and just behind the treeline, we see what appears to be a barn or house.

It’s impossible to believe that homesteaders wouldn’t know every other homestead within walking distance. This oversight is distracting and completely took me out of the moment. Also, there are numerous times in the film when the camera is focused on the “bad guys” coming in and out of the barn, and you could set Benny Hill music to it. They’re in, they’re out. There seems to be no good reason for any of the choices, and the camera doesn’t know what to do with them.

The Ugly

Despite my review, Terror on The Prairie is not that bad. It has enough going for it to warrant putting it on in the background if you already have a DailyWire+ membership.

WOKE ELEMENTS

None. Terror on the Prairie is an intentionally non-woke film. While it would be understandable for some to assume that having a woman in the lead of a gritty western thriller is woke, it is not in this case. Carano’s character is a traditional frontierswoman and mother who relies on her husband for protection. In the film, she’s been put in an extreme situation and behaved appropriately.