No assembly RequireD

It is never easy returning home. To go back home is to revisit all the memories both good and bad and often face parents that even if loving have a way to reveal your harshest realities. At times the fear of going back home can be emotions we build up ourselves and the anxiety is always worse than the moment. However for many it can truly be a nightmare with good reason. For Robbie Lyle returning to his suburban New Jersey childhood home means revisiting those that are there and those that are no longer around. The backwoods of New Jersey can hold many secrets but none more emotional devastating as to what has now defined Robbie’s family. TINSMAN ROAD from director Robbie Banfitch (The Outwaters) is a quiet yet heartbreaking look at grief. And while grief being attached to a horror film is as unique as seeing a deer in the Pine Barrens, TINSMAN ROAD is far less focused on the ongoing suffering of grief and more so the discovery for answers that can lead to peace for some. It is also a film of two halves that seem to be battling against one another. TINSMAN ROAD allows for two distinct narratives and arguments for what happens to us after death, but the end result can feel combative and overdrawn. And even with this unbalanced scale TINSMAN ROAD manages to not just terrify but lead to a soul crushing (or lifting depending on your own spirituality) finale that always keeps the idea that grief is a family business.

Robbie (Robbie Banfitch) is going back home. Leaving the sunny side of Los Angeles for quiet suburban New Jersey dominated by backwoods and people who have never left. For his mother Leslie (Leslie Ann Banfitch, Robbie’s real life mother) she is more than welcomed to his return no longer spending her days alone. But what she is still exhibiting is the pain from losing her daughter Noelle (Noelle Faccone in archive footage and voiced by musician Salem Belladonna) who went missing many years ago last seen walking the mysterious Tinsman Road. Returning home is not without its reason though, Robbie has decided to make a documentary about his sister’s disappearance but for his mom she wants the documentary focused on angels. For Leslie, her daughter may no longer be with them physically, but in her mind and heart she has left this world to become an angel and has been trying to contact her this past year. Early on Banfitch sets up a wall between Leslie and his character allowing their conversations (which according to Banfitch had little dialogue and more setup) to flow naturally as a son and mom argue against what is real and what is spiritual. Anyone who grew up in a religious or deeply spiritual home will be brought right back as the film wonderfully spends its early half focusing on how bumps in the night may just be the wind for some but for others it is a sign from the beyond. There are moments played for laughs as Leslie Ann Banfitch balances a wonderful sense of believer and naiveite. But in that innocence is a sadness as the film and audience may feel their own mom that lives at home still waiting for any of their children to return home.

TINSMAN ROAD is a movie about the impossibility of moving on and less about how we destroy ourselves in our grief and more so how easy it is to keep someone’s memory. While never stated the film clearly takes place in the 90’s (camcorder and choker necklace to prove it) and because of this the house is full of tchotchkes of Noelle’s once youthful and musical talents. There are the cassette recordings of her nature walks where she’d sing songs that would (if not for her vanishing) have fit perfectly on an eventual Twilight soundtrack. There is also the mysterious pictures of woods like demons and that pesky music box that seems to play on its own at the witching hours of the night. Noelle’s music is beautifully haunting and holds the soundtrack to an already somber film. All this accompanies Robbie on his journey as he also interviews locals (including two hilarious and all too real Jersey girls) giving the film a much needed prolonged runtime that initially allows the film to feel less focused on becoming yet another “Blair Witch” stuck in the Garden State.

Unlike other found footage films especially those reminiscent of its childhood TINSMAN ROAD is wonderfully proud of its hometown and specially Jersey roots. There is the constant sense that Robbie needed to get the hell out of dodge and it was his leaving that caused a rift in the family, but upon returning home Robbie (both as character and filmmaker) seems to delight in being home and falling back into typical and loving New Jersey past times. These moments of levity involving meeting two local women (Heather Middleton and Nancy Bujnowski respectively) show that the film can be a place of safety even amongst a horrific scenario. Scenes involving Robbie, a grown adult, sneaking in his friend to drink while his mom sleeps doesn’t just scream New Jersey it practically invites you to join in and take a swig with them. But when TINSMAN ROAD feels like it is on the right path the film takes an abrupt detour in finding its way into more conventional territory. Fed up with his mom’s spiritual acceptance Robbie heads out into the woods of Tinsman Road to find his own answers. It is here where the film does find itself trapped in more conventional found footage storytelling that never undoes all that came before but it certainly makes you yearn for those moments. Especially when this latter half of the film never justifies its overdrawn runtime mainly due to feeling separate altogether.

Robbie searching for answers indeed finds some and while the film does hold some intense and deeply unsettling lost in the woods atmosphere it still relies on shaky camera work, cries in the night sound and some peculiar and scary locals that while performed well feel like they are fitting a physical need in an otherwise better film of “less is more.” There is a deeper and enjoyable sense that answers need to be given especially when spirituality can be seen as an easy way out, but the physical separation of Robbie and Leslie as characters in the second half never fully allows for that discussion. Instead TINSMAN ROAD settles for the action in an otherwise actionless film. Banfitch with his previous film “The Outwaters” created the same prolonged build up but still managed to keep a balanced sense of visual action and unspoken intensity that TINSMAN ROAD struggles to glue together. As a fan and Jersey boy myself it was a joy to see Byram and Warren Township be used in both a loving and disturbing manner because for anyone who knows Shades of Death road (or hell lives on it) they know it can be frightening as all evil and yet there is a beauty in the seclusion. Not to mention there will always be a giddy delight anytime the Blairstown Diner gets to make an appearance in another horror film. Therefore it is impossible to deny the love behind TINSMAN ROAD even with all its bumps and detours. A film that knows its on the right path but still struggles to find its way out of the woods.

B-

TINSMAN ROAD SCREENED AT THE 2025 BROOKLYN HORROR FILM FESTIVAL. THE FILM WILL HAVE A LIMITED THEATRICAL RELEASE OCTOBER 31 THROUGH LOOK CINEMAS.