Shearer: 'Winter's Bone' takes its scary from the outskirts

I'm going to admit something here: I'm terrified of rural areas. Blame it on the fact that I was born and raised in Atlanta, spent my summers in New York and never found myself too far out of the city limits. Combine that with a steady diet of scary books and movies throughout my formative years, and you end up with some serious paranoia. The dark stretches of road that seem to go nowhere, eerie quiet, clean air and the too-good-to-be-true friendliness of the locals all make me nervous. I consider myself a Southerner, but watching "The Dukes of Hazzard" was about as close as I ever got to the real deal for the first 18 years of my life. Although I know stories like the ones in "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre," "Deliverance" or "Wrong Turn" are completely fictitious, it's tough not to have them on my mind when my car breaks down on a lonely country highway in the middle of the night. There's something comforting about brightly lit 24-hour grocery stores, police sirens and neon signs that might possibly frighten someone whose experience was the opposite of mine.

All it means is that I'm in touch with my fears, and I can rationalize them. But I do have my moments when I hear the line "It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's fritters" in my head, and it takes every bit of my adult sensibility to snap back into real life.

I've confessed this in hopes that it might serve to illustrate just how frightening "Winter's Bone" was for me to watch. Directed and co-scripted by Debra Granik, the movie took top honors at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and would best be categorized as a dramatic thriller. For my money, it was as much a horror picture as I've seen all year, and had me biting my nails and hiding in my shirt almost the entire time.

Set against the backdrop of the Ozark mountains, the story centers on Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence), a 17-year-old girl whose family lives in poverty right on the edge of the woods. Her mother is catatonic and never speaks, her father cooks meth and constantly is on the run from the law, and she must find ways to feed and clothe her younger brother and sister. When the cops come knocking at the Dolly household, Ree knows the routine and stays tight-lipped to protect her family. Only this time, deadbeat dad has used the house as bond to get out of jail, and if he fails to appear in cour

Comment on "Shearer: 'Winter's Bone' takes its scary from the outskirts"