'Gale: Yellow Brick Road' Review
- Connor Petrey
- 15 hours ago
- 2 min read
Release Date: 02/11/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Fantasy. Horror. Thriller.
MPAA: Rated PG13.
Distributor: Fathom Entertainment.
The Verdict: A Mistake
Gale: Yellow Brick Road can’t be faulted for being ambitious, taking elements of the classic The Wizard of Oz and the much more grim sequel Return to Oz, this film isn’t afraid to defy expectations.Â
Utilizing a gothic, Grimm fairy tale atmosphere, the film has a unique take on the world of Oz, or at least the path to get there. Beyond that though the film loses the audience, with what can only be described as an attempt at an allegory of something much more serious lying beneath the surface. The film we received is a befuddling sequence of scenes that become more and more confusing through their complexity.Â
What originally seems like a ghost story or possibly the work of a demonic entity, spirals down such a confidently wrong path that crams in The Wizard of Oz reference for absolutely no reason beyond its namesake. The makeup is rather hit and miss with their version of the scarecrow called Patches being the bizarre highlight while the flying monkeys or whatever they’re meant to be provides yet another profound hit of confusion. And no the lion does not show up and the tin man does, but… does he really? Â
The performances work well enough with the material being provided but when things get overly serious and our lead, Emily is supposed to freak out… it does come off as a tad illegitimate. I truly loved Chloë Crump’s performance outside of those instances, but in the instances where it matters most it does take us out of the scene. Her dealings with grief, depression and possibly phobia of mirrors (?) play a major part in Gale and at the start are truly compelling, but after she tracks down the name Dorothy to a mental institution, things go off the deep end into Ryan Murphy AHS territory.Â
It’s not a film for The Wizard of Oz fans, nor Return to Oz. It seemingly has a deeper meaning behind its execution but unfortunately it struggles to bring it clearly to the surface. When the credits rolled, I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with confusion and exhaustion from trying to keep up with what was truly happening on that big screen.