If there is a theme to "Death in Texas," it has to do with the all-pervasive existence of evil in the world. From start to finish, there is a pattern of violence that was also mitigated by the milk of human kindness.

Billy Walker spent seven years in prison for manslaughter when he murdered a man with his own hands. He was doing so to protect his mother, Grace, who was being assaulted by a man in a diner.

Now, Billy is released from prison and seeks redemption in the form of saving his mother once again, as she is suffering from liver failure. Billy steals money from a member of a drug cartel, hoping to purchase a liver for his mother on the black market. Billy's crime spree occupies most of the action of the film.

The most intriguing character in the film was Grace Walker, who always seems to attract the wrong kind of men. But while lying in the hospital, she meets the kind male nurse, John Schofield, and the two characters instantly bond. But Mr. Schofield turns out to be the father of the man that Billy Walker murdered.

The film was overly unpleasant with so much violence. There could have been another way to develop the parable of the son's sacrifice of his liver for his mother. The best scene in the film was the monologue of John Walker to Billy, in which he confesses that he was not a genuine father to his son, but a monster. The two characters were joined in that moment in an act of mercy for the figure they both felt was the light of their lives: Amazing Grace.

A B-movie thriller that turns out to be a lot better than I was expecting. The lead is unknown to me but Stephen Lang and Bruce Dern bring solid support, the latter particularly menacing even at an advanced age. The film mixes slow burning tension with some stark and gritty moments of violence, mixed with a hefty dose of non-Hollywood realism. Not amazing, but it does the trick.

Actor Bruce Dern has carved out a Hollywood career playing villains. He achieved the zenith of screen infamy when he gunned down John Wayne in the western "The Cowboys" (1972). "Wild River" (1960) marked Dern's film debut. Ironically, he never got credit for it. Afterward, he guest starred on just about every prime time tv series until 1970 when he alternated between theatrical films and made-for-TV movies. Along the way, he landed some leading roles in Douglas Trumbull's "Silent Running" (1971), Alfred Hitchcock's "Family Plot" (1976) and Hal Ashby's "Coming Home" (1978). At age 85, Dern is still in demand. He has five films in post-production, three filming, and another three in pre-production. Huffing and puffing with unrepentant villainy, Dern steals the show in writer & director Scott Windhauser's "Death in Texas (**** OUT OF ****), a gritty, contemporary, morality yarn about redemption in a world writhing with disease, greed, and corruption. Although the story takes place in El Paso, Windhauser produced it largely in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Co-starring with Dern in this grim but rewarding crime thriller are Laura Flynn Boyle, Stephen Lang, John Ashton, and Ronnie Gene Blevins. Windhauser specializes in genre pieces about adventure & crime, but he surpasses himself in "Death in Texas." Weaving together a web of storylines, he congregates characters whose lives would never have crossed with each other. This low budget, but evocative crime thriller chronicles the dismal metaphysical odyssey of a doomed parolee who finds peace for himself and happiness for his long-suffering mother. "Death in Texas" eschews humor but embraces tragedy with a heretofore untapped realism as our woebegone hero struggles to provide for his ailing mother while dodging Juarez Cartel gunmen.

When "Death in Texas" opens, convicted criminal Billy Walker (Ronnie Gene Blevins of "Feral State") sits before a parole board. Predictably, they don't like his evasive answer to their question about whether he has accepted responsibility for the error of his ways. Mind you, Billy hails from a fractured family. Not only was he forged in chaos but also he never knew his father. No matter what he does, Billy always does the wrong thing and gets the worst end of it. He beat to death a man who assaulted his mother in a diner. He slugged the guy senseless while witnesses watched in horror. The judge sentenced him to seven years. Now, Billy presents his case to the two-person parole board and sabotages himself with his own words. They are ruling out his request for parole when a sheaf of papers lands in their hands. They look at each other in complete disbelief. Incredibly, they grant Billy's parole request, and he goes home to his mother, Grace Andrews (Laura Flynn Boyle of "Men in Black II"), who has arranged a homecoming party for him. Billy is stunned to learn his mom needs a liver. Worse, Grace ranks so low on the list the chances of acquiring a liver are nil. Grace's physician Dr. Perkins (Sam Daly of "Cut Throat City") confides in Billy that the only chance of survival his mom has is if he is prepared to buy a liver from the Juarez Cartel! A liver costs $160 thousand.

Predictably, Billy doesn't find a job. Happily, he meets a sympathetic bartender, Jennifer (Cher Cosenza of "The Wilde Wedding"), who happens to be a blond bombshell. She keeps his glass filled and listens to his woes. Eventually, Billy rubs shoulders with Tyler (Mike Foy of "Green Rush"), a loud-mouth, low-level cartel hoodlum at the bar. Tyler runs a sex slavery ring and sells drugs for the cartel. Recklessly, he shows Billy his stash of cash in his warbag bound for his bosses. You can see Billy getting the wrong ideas at the sight of all those bundles of currency. Predictably, since he cannot land a job, Billy resorts to crime. Along the way, he makes two enemies that dog his trail to the end. First, the cartel money he stole belonged to an American gangster, Reynolds (Bruce Dern of "Nebraska"), who dispatches his Mexican gunsels who dress like rodeo cowboys. Second, when they cannot locate our elusive hero, Reynolds applies pressure to a local detective, John Wayne Asher (John Ashton of "Beverly Hills Cop"), to track Billy down and return his loot. Neither Reynolds nor Asher can stand each other. Imagine Billy's predicament when he discovers he cannot buy a liver from the Juarez Cartel with their own money. He is trouble-prone and destined to disaster. "Death in Texas" would be a comedy if Billy's plight weren't so hopeless and his mother so sympathetic.

Windhauser divides this predictable but challenging film into five acts: Evil, Choices, Sorrow, Power, and Sacrifice. Performances are superlative. Stephen Lang of "Avatar" plays an unforgettable night nurse in Grace's ward, and their relationship adds another dimension to the metaphysics. Usually, Ronnie Gene Blevins has supporting roles, but he is thoroughly believable as an ex-convict with an attitude. The character of Billy Walker changes over the course of this one hour and forty-one-minute melodrama. Walker compensates for his evil with a supreme act of sacrifice. Altogether, "Death in Texas" is about a son's love for his mother. Windhauser raises three questions. What would a son do to save his mom's life? How far would he go? Finally, would he be prepared to put his life on the line for his mother?