Life appears to be headed in a positive direction for Kelby Unger (Ward Roberts)....he's just proposed to his girlfriend Amelia (Christy Jackson), but his happiness is short-lived as he receives a call from the warden of a prison telling Kelby that his father has died of a heart attack while on death row for the murder of Kelby's young sister. It's obvious that Kelby prefers to leave his youth and hometown of Bisbee in the past, but also feels that pull back home to take care of the burial of his father. Amelia isn't so sure this is a good idea, but supports Kelby's decision to head back home and perhaps put his past in the past and allowing him and them to move forward in their life together. Once Kelby and Amelia are back in his hometown, it doesn't take long for the weird characters of the town to make their presence known. Wally (Jeremiah Jordan) comes calling and while Wally is a cop on the town's police force, it takes no time to see that Wally may not be all 'there'. Then we meet James Lilly (Aaron Gaffey) a very odd person and one that makes you definitely feel for Kelby and the childhood friends he had....the viewer actually meets James in the opening sequence of the film as James brings home a young woman in a drunken state and does away with her in a very brutal manner. Kelby's family isn't much of an improvement over his weird friends as Kelby and Amelia are about to put the kitchen table to a use other than eating, his sister, Trish (Alexa Havens) appears and it would seem she has more than a sisterly interest in Kelby. All this time, Kelby seems very detached from those around him and suffers from horrible visions and nightmares. Finally a little light is shed on just what Kelby's past is all about and why James and Wally are as strange and weird as they appear. Life quickly begins to unravel for Kelby and Amelia is in for the ride of her life when skeletons in the closet begin making appearances and the lives of all involved may never be the same.

Joshua is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and looks quite good for an independent film that was shot on Super 16-mm. The audio is offered in Dolby Digital 2.0 and I did have an occasional issue with the audio dropping to where I was forced to play with the volume button. It claims to be closed-captioned, but I was unable to access that feature at all on the DVD. Bonus features are rather light on this release with nothing more than a small photo gallery and eight deleted scenes and an alternate ending.

I went into this film knowing absolutely nothing about it, which I have come to find is a positive thing when watching some films for the first time, as I go into the viewing without any preconceived notions of if I'll hate the film or love it. I'm not 100% sure where my feelings fall with this film. It certainly isn't a poor film nor do I see it as a complete piece of crap. The film moves along at a very nice clip for the most part and the characters certainly hold your interest, but I'm not sure my feelings go any deeper than a morbid interest for what they're all about. Face it, most of has have a very non-traditional family life, I certainly did and do and that's not to say it's bad at all, but sheesh, in viewing this film, I certainly feel much better about my family and life in comparison to poor Kelby Unger. This film has a very nightmarish feel and look to it and you begin to question the reality at points in the film, but hey, horror films aren't always made for their basis in what we perceive as real and believable, are they? It actually got to the point in the film that I assumed what was the alternate ending was really going to be the ending to the film, so when I viewed the deleted scenes and the alternate ending, I wasn't really surprised to see what was considered for the alternate ending. I appreciated the effort that was put into this film, it certainly was entertaining and for what it's meant to be, I suppose I like it, but it might take an additional viewing or two or perhaps I'll never fully be pulled to the, 'I love this film' grouping, but it's definitely worth a rental and perhaps even a purchase for some genre fans.

Buy Joshua on DVD at Amazon.com