By Mark Hockley
A girl battles for her life among the cornfields near her home, after four masked men arrive with lethal intentions.
The Rows is an unusual cinematic experience. There’s little exposition and no real answers to questions concerning motivation or explanation. In some ways, this absence of detail makes the film more intriguing.
That said, the pacing occasionally drags, even though our young protagonist spends most of the story running, hiding and in constant danger.
Brindisi Capri, only ten years old at the time of filming, plays Lucy. She’s a remarkably resilient child who refuses to go down without a fight, whether armed with a gun or the family dog. She rarely shows much emotion, even in the face of injury or death. This appears to be a deliberate creative choice, though it can be puzzling. Stranger still is the appearance of ‘The Moon Man’, an otherworldly figure who seems to dwell in the corn. His origins and purpose are never explained, though few things about this story are.
The masked intruders are effectively menacing and their relentless pursuit of the girl generates a fair degree of tension.
This marks the feature debut of writer/director Seth Daly after several shorts and there’s much to admire in his work. Cinematographer Corey Weintraub makes striking use of the cornfields’ golden hues, while Brandon Maahs’ inventive, often propulsive score adds significant dramatic weight to the visuals.
If you can embrace the lack of clear answers, this production offers a very watchable thriller. While the script and pacing leave room for refinement, Daly and his team have delivered a debut worthy of praise. The Rows manages to leave a lasting, if enigmatic, impression.
The Rows screened as part of Frightfest 2025.
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