Equally gripping and grisly, this harrowing character study of loneliness and violence among young lovers in Texas is another unflinching film from Danger After Dark veteran Simon Rumley (The Living and the Dead).

To be honest, even placing Red White & Blue in Danger After Dark is a bit of a spoiler. Much of this new film from U.K. writer-director Simon Rumley – whose The Living and the Dead appeared in the 2007 incarnation of this series – is an incisive, sobering character study of three lonely souls adrift in Austin, Texas. Relocating to the U.S. and focusing on rigorously rendered characters who seem to be functioning within society, Rumley would appear to be moving into the more conventional parameters of American independent cinema. But don’t be lured into relaxing your nerves – when Red plunges into darker waters, it becomes very dark indeed, as Rumley shows what happens when fun and games suddenly become, well, Funny Games. Erica (a fearless Amanda Fuller) is an emotionally damaged drifter who numbs her pain with an endless series of casual, and self-destructive, sexual encounters. She winds up sharing a rooming house (and a job) with the enigmatic military veteran Nate (Noah Taylor), and the two unlikely loners develop a cautious friendship – a bond that is soon tested when one of Erica’s past one-night-stands, hipster musician Franki (Marc Senter), reappears into Erica’s life with some personal trauma of his own. The film then beings to delve into questions of empathy and morality as Rumley escalates the stakes (and the bloodshed that results), and forces the audience to rethink who is truly “good” or “bad” in the most difficult of situations. A somber shocker that is definitely not for the faint of heart, Red White & Blue confirms Rumley as a major force in contemporary horror cinema. -- Travis Crawford