Without Name

This was very creepy thanks to clever photography and sound effects, and genuinely good acting. It is, however, a rather quiet and slow moving film with not much happening apart from the characters' minds playing tricks on them. It turns very weird towards the end. I think the guy who wrote this had too many mushrooms...

Very slow, perhaps too slow to begin with, this is nevertheless an immersive experience. This is due to a combination of things - the acting, the incredible scenery and the eerie sound design.

There is, however, virtually no story. This is an uneventful film with a lacklustre ending, heightened by very good acting and terrific direction and cinematography. Filmed in Ireland, it is bound to look great - and it does - but the overall feeling I had at the end was ... what? My score is 4 out of 10.

There are some odd occurrences that make you want to keep watching. All in all it's ju sty a lot of weirdness that doesn't amount to much but some psychedelic imagery and effects. Rather a waste of time for me.

I hate to throw "water on the fires of praise" but have to give an honest opinion of this film as I see it.

The three previous reviews rave about the artistic nuances and beauty of nature melding with psychological mystery in "without name". I do agree the acting and sound track were good and suites the theme of this film. However, it is a far cry from being a thriller/Horror film and although unique I'm not sure what genre this film fits in to.

I found the film boating and purposeless. There were some nice lighting shots and shadowy artistic scenes but that does not a good film make.

Without Windows is a journey of a man (and woman) working to survey land for a mysterious man. Mush of the plot is never explained or resolved. I know this is offered up as an attempt at an artistic naturalistic mystery, but, IMO, falls short in being anything other then 70+ minutes of trees, trees and more trees. All of the additional story line and narrative seems to convolute any meaning and purpose.

Again, there are some merits to this film in way of the use of lighting and score, but, the movie moves at a snails pace and builds to a rather anti climactic ending. I was left wondering what message did this film have to convey.

To each his own. I felt the viewing of this movie was as interesting as watching grass grow.

"Without Name" is one of those movies that I really didn't like at first glance. It was too intellectual and much too slow for my personal taste when I first watched it. But after a while I kept revisiting it because of its unique nature. It's a rather slow-paced horror movie and has its focus set on the supernatural. The protagonist is a land-surveyor with a troubled marriage. The beginning of the movie is quite mundane and tries to showcase that the protagonist is just a regular guy who's doing his thing. But things change when he's sent on a special assignment. Without spoiling too much; he's supposed to measure a property that's located in a forest. But not just any forest; the one that the locals call "Goanim" (which is Welsh for "Without Name"). There are many myths about the forest and people claim that it's cursed but the protagonist doesn't seem to think much of it, initially.

As for the execution: the movie is deliberately slowed down to intensify the suspense of the horror. And I have to say, even though I criticized the pacing when I first watched it; it does work quite well in hindsight. We as the viewers know that things will eventually take a turn for the worse but we're never quite sure when. And that's ultimately where the movie shines. It manages to be terrifying because it's exploiting the most primal form of fear; the fear of the unknown. We don't know when things'll go south and we never really get to see the ghost. And yet it's evil presence is pervasive throughout the movie. Like a shadow, looming over the the protagonist's head. It's really reminiscent of the movie "It Follows" in terms of the flair. Do you know the feeling that you get when you think you're being watched? That's kind of the best way to describe this movie. It has that type of aura because the protagonist spends most of his time in the forest; feeling like he's being watched without being 100% certain about it. Doubts fester and his sanity degrades perpetually. The psychological tension is almost palpable.

To conclude: I really like this movie because it's so unique. There is no other horror movie quite like it. With that being said; it's also its biggest downside. If you don't like slow-paced movies this is probably not the movie for you. I mean, it's literally on the extreme end of the spectrum (on the slow end).

Final verdict: recommended (if you have the patience for it)