Unsettling and atmospheric
'No nudity and very little gore, and consequently, no suspense'. Quite apart from not knowing how commas work, the previous reviewer also appears to have been off sick from Idiot Film School the day they covered 'Suspense'.
This is a curiosity, sure, and won't be to everyone's taste, but I wouldn't dismiss it as a potboiler because it doesn't reach the dizzy artistic heights of Nightmare on Elm Street IV. The film effectively builds up a sense of dread through the central character's isolation and growing unease in a bleak village surrounded by featureless salt marshes. The supporting cast are thoroughly creepy from the garrulous dwarf mayor through to the pale beauty who mysteriously hooks up with the hero but who seems to know more than she is letting on. There are some touches of unsettling imagery that evoke David Lynch; the snails in the fridge, the blood red car and motorcycle and the house of the laughing windows itself. The camera-work adds to the whole, peering from darkened rooms and from behind creaking shutters - there is rarely a moment when you feel the hero is safe.
Sharing some of the mood of Don't Look Now (as indicated by Barry Norman below), the film also bears comparison with The Wicker Man, dealing with the same theme of an innocent slowly discovering the horrifying secrets of a community consumed by evil.
This is a curiosity, sure, and won't be to everyone's taste, but I wouldn't dismiss it as a potboiler because it doesn't reach the dizzy artistic heights of Nightmare on Elm Street IV. The film effectively builds up a sense of dread through the central character's isolation and growing unease in a bleak village surrounded by featureless salt marshes. The supporting cast are thoroughly creepy from the garrulous dwarf mayor through to the pale beauty who mysteriously hooks up with the hero but who seems to know more than she is letting on. There are some touches of unsettling imagery that evoke David Lynch; the snails in the fridge, the blood red car and motorcycle and the house of the laughing windows itself. The camera-work adds to the whole, peering from darkened rooms and from behind creaking shutters - there is rarely a moment when you feel the hero is safe.
Sharing some of the mood of Don't Look Now (as indicated by Barry Norman below), the film also bears comparison with The Wicker Man, dealing with the same theme of an innocent slowly discovering the horrifying secrets of a community consumed by evil.
- benquinn1
- 16 may 2007