Vendetta Road was written and directed by Nathan Light. It follows Dakota, played by Marci Engle, a campground host who knows her way around a gun or two. When her path intersects with an escaped fugitive named Ivan, portrayed by Christian Watkins, she’s placed squarely in the middle of a battle against the Irish mafia. 

The acting is amateurish from start to finish. Dakota is an interesting character. You never know what will and won’t roll off her shoulders given the dangerous circumstances she finds herself in. Ivan is less interesting. The most interesting thing about him is he stole a rifle, left for a moment, and then he never has that rifle again. Instead, he comes back with a shovel. Unfortunately, he also leaves the shovel behind later. Imagine a world where he swaps to the shovel because he was trained in shovel combat. Instead, I guess he used the shovel to bury the rifle. Most of the movie is about the bonding of Dakota and Ivan. Given the time and effort put towards building their connection, I would have liked something more than passable, but the chemistry was not on the screen. The dialogue is also passable, but the performances make it worse than it ought to be. I noticed one character would say something and now and then there would be a pause that’s long enough for the response to come off as unnatural. 

Vendetta Road is considered a thriller, but its mood usually invokes suspense rather than thrills. The suspense is built up very well but is often misused. Do you find scam calls scary? If not, you may not be moved by how spooky they want you to think scam calls are. Despite the suspenseful music and pacing, I was never in suspense. Most of the action is backloaded. People accurately move with and hold their weapons, but I question the accuracy of the gunplay. The most damning example is when characters decide that using weapons at the appropriate range is for clowns. Sometimes a scope is just for show, I guess. I’m not a stickler for accuracy in combat. Accurate combat is rare in film. When accuracy is sacrificed it’s done for thrills and hype, and here when accuracy is sacrificed it results in neither. I liked the physical violence more. It works because it isn’t well choreographed, resulting in the types of fights one would genuinely see in real life. The effects used vary. The practical effects are decent. The practical blood is alright within the context it is used. There is CG blood as well. Sometimes, people are shot and killed and there’s no blood or wound at all. There are other digital effects. They are not the quality one would hope for. The audio of the environment is great most of the time, but that, too, has its failures. Specifically, the rushing water of a still lake didn’t fit well. If a lake is going to sound like a rushing river, one should show the cause with the sound. In addition, it shouldn’t have sounded as loud and clear in one scene given the distance it was from the character we were following. The dialogue doesn’t sound as good. It has an echo element to it. 

Vendetta Road doesn’t do anything consistently well. If it’s doing something effectively in one scene, it’s doing it ineffectively in another. There is not a single thing I can say was done well scene to scene from beginning to end. Its most consistent attributes are mediocre at best. 

3 out of 10