Bloody Sauerkraut Western about a revenge-driven loner who goes to extreme lengths to track down and brutally torture his victims. Too clever for its own sadistic good: one victim is dispatched with a spring-activated device that, when triggered, launches a board with two protruding nails in the general direction of the eyes. Unless Grieder (Sam Riley) used surveyor’s implements and knew exactly how tall his victim would stand at the time of the ambush, this Wile E. Coyote contraption would never have been approved for an Acme patent. As Grieder, Riley is pure ice and recoil and unlike the double-barrel blast of anachronistic ’80s-sounding rock tunes, the British-born actor’s German dialect sounded like the emess to this Midwesterner’s ear. Naturally lit and as darkly designed as the title might indicate, Valley rides on as a visually impressive, yet structurally rickety tribute to countless oaters that came before. Directed by Andreas Prochaska. (2014) — Scott Marks
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