Teardrop (2022)

Teachers Chris and Rebecca take three students on a weekend field trip to the ghost town of Teardrop. When they talk to bartender Denver about staying in town, they’re told there is one room in the hotel and a cabin. Everything else is booked, which is odd considering there are no other cars and no people to be seen.  Chris says he would have called but couldn’t find any advertisements or listing for Teardrop. Denver says that’s to avoid being a tourist trap.  No one is suspicious of this, even though Denver is very odd.

Chris is working on a new book. He previously published a book on a frontier ghost town and feels drawn to Teardrop but isn’t sure why.  Rebecca is along for the ride because Chris likes her and he needed a second teacher in order to do the field trip.  The students are stereotypes: Ross the white rapper who hits on chicks; Teala the studious Asian who is worried about getting into college; and Josie who used to using her looks to get what she wants and is obviously trying to seduce Chris.  

The students are members of the Young Writer’s Club, which is later called the Young Author’s Club.  Yet none of them seem to have any interest in writing. There is no direction as to the purpose of this field trip or any tasks for them to complete. They aren’t even helping Chris look into the history of the town.  But he’s mostly doing this by talking to Denver. Did Chris do any research prior to coming to town?  Has he any primary sources which would be required for his book to be taken seriously, or is he relying on rumor and legend?

Denver tells them the town was named after a strange girl who never cried, no matter what the other kids did to her or how badly they bullied her. What a great reason to name a town.  She was the hanging judges daughter and everyone feared him. I wondered why everyone would bully the daughter of the most feared man in town who hanged people on a whim. Then Denver tells us the judge killed his own daughter. Wow so everyone hated this poor girl. What a downer.

The movie set up is odd and the plot points obvious.  Why did Chris bring the students on the trip when he could have done research on his own? Why are they in a writers club when they don’t seem to care about writing?  Are we not supposed to know Chris has a connection to the ghost town and the hanging judge? Denver tells him he looks familiar and thinks he’s been there before.  The hanging judges face is always blurred in photos and in flashbacks his face is hidden. The foreshadowing is like a shovel to the head.

Shout out to the prop department for actually making a newspaper with an article that deals with the hanging judge.  So many prop newspapers are either nonsense words or a photo pasted into an article about something completely unrelated.

Ridiculous dialogue

We don’t allow photos.

This vase must have blown off the dresser from the wind.

Be dumb and stupid for a change. All those bad thoughts will go away. [about suicidal thoughts]

I’ll be waiting on baited breath.

Why didn’t he just drive around them?

Does he always bring a typewriter with him?

The newspaper with the blurry close up photo