Of all the feelings I could feel when watching a movie for the first time, nostalgia is definitely among the rarest. I've seen director Jim Mickle at work before, but this is the first time he's pulled off something near-magical behind the lens. Watching this Michael C. Hall led thriller vehicle (which also features the magnificent Don Johnson and a surprisingly taciturn Sam Shepard), the feeling that I'm watching some lost collaboration between early 80's John Carpenter and the Coen Brothers is striking indeed. The fever dream cinematography, unsettled pacing and synth-heavy score are such obvious calling cards to the former that I had to pinch myself a few times to realize it wasn't one of my favorite directors at work, and yet there's a strange quirky balance between the unfolding drama, violence and understated dialogue between the cast to make me think just as much of the Coens. And let me tell ya, it's not a bad blend at all.

Without spoiling too much, Hall plays a Texan family man in 1989 who wakes up one night to find a masked intruder in his house. After shooting and killing the intruder, he becomes the talk of the town and eventually runs into the man's father...who has just gotten out of prison and isn't happy that his son is dead. You think you know the rest of the story from this point on...and yet you really don't. Things get quite interesting from here on out.

One thing I really love about this film is how it really nails the late 80's in mideast Texas to a T. The look, the way people dress, the music on the radio...they really turned the clock back to '89. The script, while not perfect, is also played out without your typical plot contrivances to drive the story. Very organic without making too much of a fuss about transition. When the violence does arrive, it is rather striking in it's bloodthirstiness, and you like it because it wasn't announced with a thousand trumpeting harbingers beforehand. You don't need to be sold some imitation of tension to believe there's lives on the line: you get it without having to be told.

Special kudos really need to be given to Johnson here: he really steals the show once he comes into the overall picture. I've seen him in a lot of things, but his charisma is just bleeding out like crazy here.

I'm not really cut out to be a film critic truth be told, but a movie with this much inner vitality and composure is a treat when the moon is right. I lament that Carpenter himself hasn't done a film like this in what feels like eternity, but I suppose the vengeful ghost of one of my favorites eras is better than nothing at all in 2014.