This unusually candid and troubling documentary was shot in the Mohawk Valley region of upstate New York which was the site of colonial massacres, Revolutionary War battles, and home of the Remington Arms factory, the largest employer in the area. The Mosher family have lived in this area for generations.
Dotte Mosher is the head of the household; whenever someone wants to talk, she is there to listen. Her heart is large and she has been hurt and disappointed many times because she likes to look on the bright side of things. Her husband Don is a very angry man, a retired policeman and a Vietnam veteran who is still suffering adverse effects from combat duty. Their oldest daughter Donna is in middle age alone and depressed. She has had a series of abusive relationships with men, and the whole family has been rocked by them. And now she sees the same patterns showing up in her daughter Daneal.
Daneal is in the midst of a child custody battle with her ex-husband who regularly beats her up. Dotte and Donna want her to fight for the right to keep Ruby, her infant daughter, but she decides that it is all too much for her to handle. We meet her new boyfriend, another controlling man. Her younger sister Desi is a spunky eleven-year-old who plays violent video games and comments knowingly about the family's many flaws. She is the last chance for a Mosher to break out of the cycle of abuse and self-destruction.
This portrait of a hurting working-class family runs from Halloween one year to the next year and a Mosher party with goblins, ghouls, and other costumes. It is appropriate that the documentary is sandwiched between these two holidays since this is a clan haunted by the ghosts of the past. Perhaps that is why Denise, Don's lonely sister, practices Wicca and visits the local graveyard to commune with lost souls. Her brother refuses to relate to her at all, calling her "useless." Don has little patience with Chris, a foster son who is his wife's pet project. When he steals from them, the ex-policeman realizes that they must abandon the boy.
October Country is directed by photographer Donal Mosher who has escaped home and tried to exorcise the many demons that hobble and disrupt the lives of his family. At the center of this searing portrait is the violence that simmers below the surface and has already severely damaged the lives of each member of the Mosher clan.
