The heavy in “The Bad Shepherd” shows up in a Dodge Challenger, a sports coat and a black turtleneck. And something about him is just…off.

It’s not the menacing presence, that cropped hired-killer haircut. Not even the “attempted mustache.”

The voice? An odd Jersey Shore accent, maybe an octave or an octave and a half higher than we’d associate with a generic movie tough — sort of Tom Selleck or sportscaster Jim Rome before they put a lot of effort into lowering theirs to something more butch.

And the words that come out sound as if the character reciting them has seen them on the page, but never spoken them aloud, or heard them spoken aloud.

He speaks of “watching your prey from afar.” As he is summoning up all the menace he can manage for a quartet of hunters who have come into possession of a cliched duffel bag full of cash, he has words of high-voiced warning.

“I know that money? It’s the beginning of your demise.”

I try to make it a point of not singling out performances in bad to middling films, unless it’s obvious that Dakota Johnson is a big part of the problem in “Madame Web.” Geo Santini, playing a mysterious menace in “The Bad Shepherd?” He’s also the director, and judging by the credits, he’s the writer as well (IMdb and other sources credit somebody else.).

As this information is conveyed in the CLOSING credits to the film, Geo is fair game. He chose to cast himself. If he’s going to direct himself, maybe he should be like Clint. Cut as many of your lines as you can get away with. Every time he opens his mouth, his movie gets worse.

It’s a formulaic thriller that opens with a bloodied woman with a gun fleeing from something or someone. She has a flat tire in the wintry woods, grabs that pistol and that duffel bag and tries to get away on foot.

Four “city” hunters in an oversized Ford pick-em-up run over her. She does not get up.

Paul (Christos Kalabogias) is ready to call the police. But John (Scotty Tovar) has searched the duffel bag.

“Put the phone away, Paul. We gotta think what we’re gonna do here.”

Driver Travis (Brett Zimmerman) notes his alcohol intake and “two DUIs.” Leonard (Justin Taite)? He’s willing to hear John out.

They’re just starting to carry out “the plan” when a cop rolls up, looking for something specific and not “calling it in.” Things get more serious in a flash.

And that hunting cabin they go to isn’t the safe haven/hideway they think it is. The stranger in the Challenger comes straight to their door, knowing their names and making them an offer they may or may not refuse.

He wants to “convince you that is in your best interest” to just give him the cash. Will anybody or everybody be convinced?

The preordained nature of the story has the four friends turning on each other over the cash, the predicament and the rising body count that carrying out their scheme entails.

Some of that works, much doesn’t. And let’s wait to figure out why “Sidney,” the stranger, knows so much about them.

Santini isn’t the only one miscast here. There’s a woodsman checking his traps who is about as woodsy as any customer at any suburban Williams Sonoma store on any given Saturday.

There’s suspense in a few stand-off moments, but the plot’s twists grow less unexpected by the minute.

And every time we return to our title character, the philosopher in the hitman’s turtleneck, we cringe, and not in a good way.

Rating: unrated, violence, profanity

Cast: Christos Kalabogias, Scotty Tovar, Justin Taite, Brett Zimmerman and Geo Santini.

Credits: Directed by Geo Santini, scripted by Ryuan David Jahn (and Geo Santini?). A Saban Films release.

Running time: 1:31