Packard’s shorts, “Evil Millennium” is a kind of trailer for a never-completed picture. His earliest available work, “Dawn of an Evil Millennium,” from 1988, is a component of the anthology film “Dawn of Evil.” Like some of Mr. Packard’s subjects are Los Angeles, its grungiest denizens, paranoia, and film itself. The six films available free to Prime members are the short features “Foxfur” (2012) and “SpaceDisco One” (2007) the anthology films “Dawn of Evil” and “Tales Beyond Madness ” and the deep dives (that is, features) “Reflections of Evil” (2002) and his latest film, “Fatal Pulse,” which had a theatrical showing in June under the name “Untitled Yuppie Fear Thriller.” Ultimately, these fellows can’t stop what’s coming. This makes the film’s harrowing action all the more believable. But the details provided in the writing, and by the two leads’ performances, add distinctive details and dimension here.
The character dynamics are recognizable in the way they hew to genre conventions. As the two friends get into one awful predicament after another, Marcus’s “a man’s gotta do what he’s gotta do” attitude rubs up against Vaughn’s reticence, and over the course of the movie their friendship frays. And because it’s on Netflix, “Calibre” is a movie you can pause, but you’re not going to want to. The first “holy crap!” moment of the movie occurs not even 20 minutes in, and at that point it’s don’t-get-up-from-the-sofa time. (I had to turn on the subtitles at this section because I thought the actress Kate Bracken had said “Albert Ayler,” which can’t be right.) This event is significant. Iona eagerly tells Vaughn that he and Marcus have “picked the right weekend”: It’s the town’s celebration of Alban Eiler, the Celtic name for the spring equinox, a 24-hour period when day and night are of equal measure. In a pub the night before they head for hunting grounds, two local women, Kara and Iona, home in on the fellows, much to the irritation of a former boyfriend of Kara’s. Vaughn has a fiancée who’s pregnant, and Marcus takes this occasion to crow to his buddy that he should “enjoy the last few days” of his freedom. “Calibre,” written and directed by Matt Palmer (making his first feature) follows two old friends, Marcus (Martin McCann) and Vaughn (Jack Lowden), on a hunting (or “stalking,” as the townspeople call it) trip to the Scottish Highlands. “This one’s a genuine nail-biter,” he tweeted, “It’s got a Hitchcock vibe with a little bit of ‘The Wicker Man’ tossed in for good measure.” I’d heard good things about it, too, from friends outside journalism and entertainment the movie seems to have built an organic word-of-mouth buzz (although it does have its own social media account). Earlier this month, the Netflix original movie “Calibre” received a ringing endorsement from no less than the redoubtable author Stephen King, an expert in the fright department.
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