June Dietrich plays Mary Ellen O’Malley, who’s summoned home one day because of a tragedy.

Her husband William has been murdered. Worse, his body has been mutilated and parts of it are missing.

Worse yet, it’s the third such murder in recent months in the small Oregon logging community where she lives.

When Henry Breck (Lance Henriksen) calls a community meeting to address the situation, Mary Ellen announces her bold plan.

She’ll swap her land for a rifle, a pistol, some supplies and a good horse. She plans to set out after the killer on a mission of vengeance.

Breck warns against it. After all, bounty men have been recruited to find the vicious killer. And once blood is on your hands, you can’t wash it off, the Civil War veteran tells Mary.

But Mary can’t be swayed. And she gets a helping hand from Diana Maple (Meg Foster), who knows that women can’t always act like ladies in the West of 1871.

Review:

Working with what was obviously a shoestring budget, director Justin Lee has made a beautiful looking film, much of which is set along the Pacific coast, gracing us with ocean scenes you won’t find in too many Westerns.

And Western fans will find it different enough to be worth a watch, though it’d seem more different if there hadn’t been a recent rash of Westerns with female leads.

Unfortunately, long stretches of the already short running time consist of Mary Ellen riding her horse or trudging on foot through that lovely scenery.

She never seems overwhelmed by the task she’s taken on. She seldom seems in peril. She does seem to have an innate sense of where to find a killer no one else has been able to track down.

When she finally finds the monster? Well, he turns out to be the most eloquent, body dismembering villain you’re ever likely to find.

Lance Henriksen and Meg Foster are among the top-billed her. But don’t be fooled. They’re in the film for only a couple of scenes. And contrary to what the DVD cover suggests, Henriksen never picks up a gun.

June Dietrich as Mary Ellen O’Malley, stalking her prey in A Reckoning (2018)

Kevin Makely as Marrow, talking to a skull in A Reckoning (2018)

Directed by:
Justin Lee

Cast:
June Dietrich … Mary Ellen O’Malley
Kevin Makely … Marrow
Todd A. Robinson … Jubediah Thorne
Lance Henriksen … Henry Breck
Meg Foster … Diana Maple
Kevin Crow … Mr. Barley
Andrew Garrettson … Montgomery “Monty” Gower
Matthew James McCarthy … Baxter
Jeff Mendenhall … Mr. Duniway

Runtime: 81 min.

Lance Henriksen as Henry Break in A Reckoning (2018)

Meg Foster as Diana Maple in A Reckoning (2018)

Memorable lines:

Henry Breck, when Mary announces her plan to track down her husband’s killer: “It’s not lady-like.”
Mrs. Maples: “Mr. Breck, when we agreed to come her, the ladies within us stayed behind.”

Mrs. Maple, presenting her husband’s rifle to Mary: “I don’t know how many men he killed with it. But it has certainly seen death. Which is why I’m giving it to you.”

Bounty hunter Jubediah Thorne: “Young lady, if you value your life, you best make yourself scarce. This ain’t no place for a woman with thoughts of savagery on her mind. Now you go home and grieve.”