Grim Prairie Tales

This first feature by Coe (who designed the posters for Back to the Future and Out of Africa, among others) is a stand-out US independent. A prim New Englander (Dourif) finds his campsite invaded by a grizzled, smelly mountain man (Jones), who turns up with a fresh corpse slung over his saddle. Mutual mistrust spurs them to scare each other with horror stories through the night. The four tales are ingeniously varied (and intelligently keyed to the character of the teller and the situation around the camp-fire); but it's the writing of the framing story and the two lead performances that make the film so special. As the T-shirt has it, it sucks you in.