Dwight Evans, living as a beach vagrant, lives out of his car and scavenges for food and money. A policewoman tells him that Wade Cleland, the man who murdered Dwight's parents twenty years ago, is to be released from prison. Dwight returns to his hometown in Virginia and watches the Clelands collect Wade from prison in a limousine. He steals a gun enroute but it was locked, and Dwight ditches the gun. The Clelands go to a local club to celebrate Wade's release. Dwight follows Wade to the club's restroom and, after a fight, fatally stabs him. Realizing he dropped his car keys in the club, Dwight steals the Clelands' limousine. As he drives away he discovers a teenage boy, William Cleland, in the back and lets him go. After cleaning himself up, Dwight visits his sister, Sam, for the first time in years and tells her that he has killed Wade. Sam is shocked but happy about it. As the killing has gone unreported on the news, Dwight surmises that the Clelands have decided to seek revenge without police involvement. Sam flees her home with her daughters and Dwight waits in the family house for the Clelands' attack. Wade's two brothers arrive in the car Dwight left outside the club. As Dwight escapes, he runs over Teddy Cleland and he places the unconscious body in the trunk. Before Dwight drives away, Teddy's brother Carl shoots him in the thigh with a crossbow. After attempting surgery on himself, Dwight has the wound treated at a hospital. He returns to Sam's house to clean up the mess. He tracks down an old high school friend, Ben, who lends him a rifle. On Ben's land, Dwight interrogates Teddy at gunpoint, who reveals that Wade was not his parents' killer. Dwight's father and Wade Sr.'s wife were having an affair. As revenge, Wade's now deceased father killed his dad and his mother's death was incidental, as she just happened to be in the car during the ambush. Wade Jr. took the blame as his father was dying from cancer and the family did not want him to die in prison. Teddy wrestles the gun from Dwight, but is shot dead by Ben from a concealed position. Ben and Dwight dispose of Teddy's body and part ways. To keep Ben from further involvement, Dwight removes the battery from his car. Dwight goes to the Cleland house and finds it empty. He searches it for guns, dumps them in a lake, and waits to ambush the Clelands. He leaves a message on the house answering machine asking them to leave Sam out of the dispute. Carl, his older sister, Kris, and their cousin, Hope, return and listen to Dwight's message. When it becomes clear that the Clelands intend to kill Sam, Dwight shoots and kills Carl. He then holds the women at gunpoint while explaining his dilemma about whether to kill all the family members. William enters through another door and shoots Dwight with a shotgun. The women yell at William to kill Dwight. Dwight, severely wounded, disarms William and tells him to leave with his car. As William leaves, Dwight tells the women that William is his half-brother. Hope attempts to attack Dwight as Kris reaches for a TEC-9 hidden under a recliner and fires wildly at Dwight. She shoots and kills Hope in the process. Dwight returns fire mortally wounding Kris, but not before he is shot by her. Dwight dies on the floor, while mumbling that the keys are in the car.
Cast
Evans family: Cleland family:
Sidné Anderson as Officer Eddy
Bonnie Johnson as Margaret Gaffney
Production
Blair and Saulnier had been making movies together growing up and hoped to make a living out of it; however, as they both became older with families, they realized that that might not happen. After the disappointing reception of their horror comedyMurder Party, the two wanted to make one last film together. Saulnier said, "We embraced the fact that we had to wrap up this childhood arc—this insane fantasy of wanting to be filmmakers—and just make a film that was right and true." The concept of a revenge story appealed to Saulnier, who said that it "was just about grounding the film in a very mundane scenario that needed so little exposition." The film's plot also serves as a critique for Saulnier of films that he enjoyed growing up. In particular, several violent crimes in the early years of the 2010s "made miserable", and he said he "couldn't do a film that was akin to those awesome genre spectacles of my youth" in said climate. The film was financed with help from a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012 asking for $35,000 and money from Saulnier's own savings. Saulnier initially did not want to use the crowd funding platform, as he felt conflicted about asking for help, specifically that donors could not invest in the back end through the site. However, he eventually realized that the positive outweighed the negative. Saulnier said that when making the pitch video for the campaign "I faced my worst nightmare" as he was camera shy.
Reception
Box office
Blue Ruin opened in 7 theaters in North America and earned $32,608 in its opening weekend averaging $4,658 per theater and ranking #52 at the box office. The film ultimately earned $258,384 domestically and $719,241 internationally for a total of $977,625. The film then was given a VOD release on April 25, 2014. followed by a home video release on July 22, 2014.
Critical reception
, a review aggregator, reports that 96% of 135 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 8 out of 10. The critical consensus states "Smart, stripped-down, and thrillingly grim, Blue Ruin proves that a well-told revenge story can still leave its audience on the edge of their seat." The film also has a score of 77 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
