Economical Horror Indie ‘The Arborist’ Outshines Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners,’ in Many Respects

Let’s do some accounting, shall we? Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” a monster movie and parable about race relations, is reputed to have cost close to $100 million, and has since turned a tidy profit. The film’s critical fortunes have been happy: Cultural machers like the New Yorker and the New York Times listed it as the best picture of 2025. And then there are those 16 Oscar nominations, the most ever. “Sinners” is a phenomenon.Now here comes Andrew Mudge’s “The Arborist,” another monster movie and parable — this time concerning the limits of familial love — with a budget that looks to have been modest, but not, in the end, constricting. Unlike “Sinners,” Mr. Mudge’s film has a cast that can be counted on two hands. Like “Sinners,” “The Arborist” features an actor — in this case, Hudson West — who takes on two roles: the son of the title character, Wyatt, and a distant long-dead relative, Victor Randolph. Actually, let’s make that three roles, given that Mr. West plays Victor as both a mortal being and an unholy spirit. The critical and commercial fate of “The Arborist” remains to be seen, though a body could comfortably wager that Mr. Mudge’s economical indie won’t register a blip on the radar of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It’s too bad, really: “The Arborist” is, as a cinematic turn, more arresting than Mr. Coogler’s Hollywood blockbuster.Not that “The Arborist” is without its problems. Mr. Mudge’s screenplay relies overly much on explication, and the editor, Mark Grassia, should have pushed back harder on the auteur when it came to wrapping things up: The movie’s turbulent denouement rambles on past the point of necessity. Less egregious is the film’s take on adolescence and parenthood; still, festooning the proceedings in pagan ritual is a questionable gambit. Mr. Mudge is on firmer ground when channeling “The Exorcist” than when paying homage to “The Wicker Man” (both 1973).Of course, the tribulations of adolescence are tailor-made for the horror genre. Wyatt is the son of Ellie (Lucy Walters), but he is not her only child. An impressionistic preamble lets us know that a baby daughter died of sudden infant death syndrome, while hinting at other and, possibly, darker circumstances. The bond between mother and son is rife with unstated suppositions, and Ellie has taken to drink. When a job comes along to clear a raft of trees on an isolated country estate, mother and son take to it with grim determination.Will Lyman in ‘The Arborist.’ Via Dark Sky FilmsWhy Arthur Randolph (Will Lyman) decided to hire Ellie rather than a “feller” — that is to say, a contractor who specializes in the safe and organized cutting of trees — is a mystery. An arborist is, after all, in the business of caring for and maintaining trees, not chopping the things down. Randolph, a cryptic old man given to doleful turns of phrase, insists all the same on Ellie’s services, even when it appears that Wyatt is trespassing in his home and vandalizing the property. Boys will be boys, right?Kind of. Ellie has her hands full with a moody and recalcitrant teenager, but when Wyatt admits to encountering the stray bogey on the Randolph estate, all bets are off. Our three protagonists spend a lot of time sussing out each other’s motives and secrets, and do so while navigating an ominous expanse of woods and a mansion consisting of endless corridors, abandoned spaces, and furtive shadows. Ms. Walters, having been tasked with the role of being a rational participant in increasingly unsteady circumstances, holds the screen with a nimble physicality.Mr. Lyman is also good, what with a voice simultaneously thick as molasses and as abrasive as steel wool. Mr. West glowers, growls and whines to requisite effect, but it is Mr. Mudge’s fluency of movement and, especially, Dan Kennedy’s keening cinematography that carry “The Arborist.” Genre fans will appreciate the story’s conventions even as it takes some questionable turns and predictable tumbles. Casual cinema-goers will likely rue these turnabouts, but, in the end, there is more wit, precision and clarity in this film than any number of Best Picture nominees, “Sinners” included.

Economical Horror Indie ‘The Arborist’ Outshines Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners,’ in Many Respects

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