If you could snap your fingers and make your school bully disappear, would you? That is the question posed here in this chilling tale of revenge called "Mean Creek". Sam is beaten by the school bully George one time too many, and now Sam's brother and his friends are intent on seeking revenge on George by luring him out to the river and playing a nasty prank on him, but things go horribly wrong.

Much like "Deliverance" being a tale of paranoia and the mind becoming the worst enemy after a tragedy, "Mean Creek" is a younger more contemporary tale of an incident spawning a tragedy which has dire consequences, consequences which could have a grave punishment, it's the tale of a group of people within the scope of the tragedy forced to make a decision, not a good one mind you, but still a decision that they have to live with as long as each of them live. Director Larry Clark failed miserable in his tale ("Bully") of kids and their consequences in their actions because he couldn't quite get past the kiddie sex to get the actual point, but "Mean Creek" is perhaps the best variation on the cruelty of children good and bad and what their choices can mean in the future, and brings about the question: where are the parents?

I was grabbed by the neck from the very beginning of this movie, and not once did I get up to pause the film. "Mean Creek" is a very gripping and very grim piece of filmmaking set amidst the peaceful backdrop of the river and trees, much like "Deliverance" was. Director Estes said this film was given an R rating because of the F-word used a lot in one scene, but really, has he ever been around kids before? Every kid in this film doesn't do something that I once questioned as being far-fetched. Each kid is cruel, each kid drinks, each kid has an undeniable fascination with sex, and, duh Mr. Estes, every kid curses like a sailor, I don't care what anyone thinks, and that's what makes this such a gripping film, is it's unflinching honesty and blunt storytelling.

Each character in the movie is very deep and three-dimensional and each of them helps us watch these events unfold with their own issues which, in some way or another help contribute in the final acts played against the character George. I think this should be shown to everyone without a warning, because it shows with all truth and honesty that actions have consequences not just involving the law but also involving the confliction of your morals, and your conscience, it's honest, not adult; and it tells that sometimes revenge isn't always the best decision. At one point the character Marty begins muttering, "You always gotta go with the best idea you've got." And that's wrong, but it becomes the general sentiment amidst the small ring of characters in the movie who think the ends justify the means.

Each character has their own involvement with the current situation. Rocky wants revenge on George because of what he did to Sam, Sam (the most mature of the group) wants revenge for being beaten, but the rest of the characters have their own agenda. The character Millie (another of the only mature people in the group) played by Carly Schroeder (who gives a very good performance) has no idea what's about to happen and wants nothing to do with it, the character Clyde has his own problems with his father's sexual orientation which brings about an anger in him, and Marty, who is very dead set in seeking revenge against George. The character Marty is not only seeking vengeance on George for being a bully, but mostly acting out his aggressions towards his own older brother for being abusive. They're all in some way or another seeking vengeance on their own troubled lives through George, not simply for being a bully, but for being alive; he's their excuse for acting out against the troubles in their lives.

What I appreciated was what director Estes tried to get across to the audience. Nothing was ever subjective, everything was left up to us. Director-writer Estes leaves a lot of the decisions about the film up to the audience to decipher and interpret especially the hypothetical question that's hardly answered here, "If you could snap your finger and make your school bully disappear, would you?" Would you? I would have. We learn a lot about the character George and he lets us make up our own minds about whether he's a really bad person who deserves what he may get, or just a distraught sad person who just needs to be given a chance. As for the revenge, that's kept a secret. We don't learn what revenge they're seeking to put on George but the director instantly puts it upon the audience that no good is going to come from the revenge they're attempting to seek against him.

It's kept tightly under wraps from the audience, and we feel the slow sense of foreboding dread as the time passes, and the tension slowly builds inch by inch minute by minute as the atmosphere swells up towards the viewers eyes. Something bad is going to happen, we just don't know what, and that in its own form is scarier than any horror movie in the theaters. What we learn about George soon becomes the deciding factor on whether think that these kids' plan for revenge may not be such a good idea. Ultimately, what turns out as a tale of revenge also becomes a very effective tale of morals, conscience, and peer pressure.

Estes doesn't directly state it, but what becomes an underlying message in the film is that people with bad poor upbringings end up making bad decisions and resort to murder while people with better upbringings could make better decisions, and that's not the case. I had a poverty-stricken upbringing and I've never committed a crime, so Estes' film brings about the wrong message about class and humanity. It's unfair to assume that a person who grew up poor will do things without conscience, so soon the message becomes quite clear which makes the story hard to swallow as a whole and deny what he's trying to get across.

In the end "Mean Creek" serves as the ultimate chilling word of warning to anyone: for every action, there's inevitably a consequence, and many times you can pay with those consequences. Well done, well acted, and well written, this is such a great thriller.

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