Tom Andrews, his wife Kathy, their two children & Tom's Father Henry are all driving to a town called Silversprings on Christmas Eve to visit relatives. On the way, they decide to stop at a ghost town called Sutterville which by a strange coincidence Tom has had nightmares about every year around Christmas for his whole life. Tom's father is wary & begs them not to go; however Tom's car develops a mind of it's own & takes them there only to break down so that they can't leave. Meanwhile a man arrested for vagrancy by local police is identified as Clarence McCoughlin who supposedly died in Sutterville 40 years ago, not to mention he seems to have some sort of demonic power. As the Andrews family explore the town a feeling of unease starts to takeover, Clarence escapes jail & heads back to Sutterville for a sinister family reunion...
I think it's safe to assume that "Family Reunion" was produced with a very limited budget and the director, Michael Hawes, managed to use that budget carefully by creating a tastefully modest (perhaps too modest for its own good) supernatural atmosphere of ghosts and objects that move by themselves, cleverly avoiding badly done CGI or other atrocities. Without resorting to tacky visual or sound effects, this film manages to stay mostly on the serious side, except for a few delirious situations and some mildly bizarre dialogs.
In "Family Reunion", our main characters are the members of the Andrews family: Tom, the father; Kate, the mother; Erin and Billy, the children and, finally, grandpa Henry who tags along. The Andrews go on a trip to visit Kate's family for Christmas, but by Billy's request, Tom decides to make a stop at a ghost town called Sutterville. While they're there, the Andrews come across a policeman, who has just arrested a strange young man for vagrancy (weirdly enough, only Billy, the youngest member of the family, shows some outrage by the fact that arresting someone for vagrancy doesn't make too much sense). After this random encounter with the police, the Andrews decide to leave the place, but... craziness ensues, when the car begins to run by itself, taking the Andrews to the heart of Sutterville and leaving them stranded there (rudest vehicle ever). After this, the car battery dies, much to everyone's dismay, especially grandpa Henry, who seems to have an irrational aversion for Sutterville and channels his anxiety by smoking like a chimney.
Meanwhile, the young man who was arrested for vagrancy doesn't seem to be too concerned about the fact that they intend to keep him in a cell, as he constantly smirks and taunts the police officers. A lot of bizarre and gruesome situations occur around the young vagrant and as the police investigates his backgrounds, they come across strange information about his past that doesn't seem to make any sense. In the meantime, people begin to die in mysterious ways around the unidentified man.
As the Andrews try to find a way out of the oppressively quiet ghost town, they come across some of its bizarre residents, who seem to have something to say to the Andrews, but they don't really say anything outright. In the end, after a few nonsensical encounters with these locals, Tom will come across a dark secret from his past that connects his identity to Sutterville and some strange nightmares that he has been experiencing for years.
This toned-down horror flick is so subtle that it features no gore whatsoever, the body count is rather low and the few deaths that actually happen onscreen are so restrained, that "Family Reunion" could be easily endured even by the most faint-hearted. One of the most "brutal" deaths occurs when our bad guy strangles another character by using his powers, so the helpless victim acts like he is being suffocated by an invisible force, until he finally dies. Clearly, if this is the most violent death, one can easily understand the PG-rating. Besides this, there are basically no jump scares and the music, though creepy enough (in a "low budget production from the 80s" sort of way) isn't too invasive, either.
The acting is pretty artificial, which should be no surprise in a low budget horror flick, so it would be disappointing or, at least, out-of-place if the acting was outstanding. Most of the main cast members didn't act in other films besides "Family Reunion", except for Mel Novak, who isn't exactly an a-list actor, but did a lot of acting works and still remains active. Of course, even if the actors were amazingly skilled, they probably wouldn't be able to show it off in a film with dialogs like the ones we get here (and I am not criticizing, I am just pointing out a fact). Some of the best unintentionally funny interactions take place when Tom (Novak) begins to lose his temper and snaps at every single member of the family for every little thing. The humor mostly comes from the fact that, those of us who went on family vacations when we were kids, may remember our own parents losing their temper, just like Tom, after several hours inside a car with a bunch of loud kids fighting, yelling and asking "are we there yet?"... or maybe that's just my personal recollection.
Michael Hawes, the director, didn't do anything after "Family Reunion", and his only previous film is listed as "Terror in Sutterville", an Australian production, which I can only assume is somehow connected to "Family Reunion", given the fact that the word "Sutterville" is featured in the title. It's almost bizarre how unknown this film is, because even after a mildly extensive search on the Internet, I could only find a few reviews. I remember watching this flick during my teenage years, a time of my life where I'd binge watch obscure 80s horror flicks during the weekends. For some unknown reason, "Family Reunion" stayed with me for years, until I recently found it on the Internet. Watching it again after so many years made me realize that, just like I remembered, there really isn't anything special about it, but I was still glad to find it and it sure kept me entertained. Still, I am surprised by the fact that I even remember a flick that could be considered bland to a certain degree.
Though "Family Reunion" most likely will never get any recognition among horror fans, those who come across this flick will probably enjoy it, probably without wanting to watch it for a second time.
