The holiday season arrives early with Porch Pirates, a family friendly and Dove-approved film that is surprisingly suspenseful yet also wholly entertaining. The film tells a rather unique story, though one that had me scratching my head wondering why no had thought of it before. An east Texas town has been subject to an organized "porch pirate" ring, a well organized and technologically advanced group that has taken to tracking local delivery trucks and swooping in to steal the stash when no one's looking. 

The gang of sorts includes leader Bobby (Noah Archibald), his main squeeze Sarah (Molly Peyton White), Izzy (Terry Higginbotham), and Sticky (Ryan T. Johnson). Porch Pirates has a retro vibe throughout. For example, a $50,000 payday after a week of pilfering seems to please everyone while I'm sitting there thinking "You could have just gotten a gig driving for Amazon for that." 

Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit. 

Almost right off the bat, a group of local detectives are determined to break up the theft ring and put their little town back in the holiday spirit though one, in particular, isn't exactly a holiday spirit kind of guy. Marcos (Phil Mendoza) clearly has some unresolved Christmas issues and works alongside Jack (Jay Dee Walters), his brother-in-law married to Maria (Candace Kirkpatrick). 

Porch Pirates almost has a Home Alone vibe, though there are no kids home alone and these porch pirates are a lot less inept. That said, director Jeff Hamm ensures there's lots of light, family friendly hijinks going on and I definitely found myself thinking of Home Alone on more than one occasion. There are moments of genuine suspense here, though with the exception of one scene anything truly dastardly is only implied. This is Hamm's first feature after several shorts and it's clear he's got a comfortable eye for family friendly entertainment that pushes the boundary just a bit. 

It's honestly rather refreshing. 

The ensemble cast is uniformly strong here with both Mendoza and Wallace being particular highlights. It's a rarity for a lower budgeted indie project to not have any real casting dead spots, however, there's a naturalness that feels perfect with this cast for the story that is being told by co-writers Hamm with Jay Dee Walters and Justin Chaffee. 

Lensing by Paul Michael O'Connors is effective throughout and Erick Schroder's original score for the film nicely brings to life that holiday atmosphere with just a hint of suspense when needed. 

As is true for nearly all films being awarded the Dove organization's seal, Porch Pirates has a definite thread of faith though falls more into the family friendly, faith inspired category than actually being a faith-based film. 

Porch Pirates didn't completely blow me away, though I enjoyed it consistently and enjoyed spending time with these characters. It's due for a late November release with indie distributor Ichthys Films. 

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic