This indie folk horror ended up being an interesting mixed bag. There were some things that I quite liked about it and others that were not as successful.
The first thing I noticed about this production were the beautiful locations in which they filmed. It really set the scene and provided for some really nice aesthetics throughout.
I next started to notice some less than ideal technical issues such as clunky editing and transitions. The sound levels were all over the place and not super well-balanced between room tone, voices, background noise and such. I went to the theater to see this movie and sometimes that magnifies issues that Indie productions often can have that aren't as prevalent or noticeable during an at home viewing... such as some shotty cgi, continuity issues or even something as small as the rooms not being fanned enough after the smoke machine... so that is some thing to keep in mind while reading this.
My favorite sub genre is folk horror which is part of the reason I went out of my way to see this production. While this tale was quite predictable and had an air of familiarity about it... it was still fun, interesting and spooky at times. I wish they had pumped up the creep factor a bit, however. The witch was by far the most successful part. Whenever she was shown she was quite cool and creepy looking which I appreciated.
The whole story was a nice window into a culture that many of us are most likely not well-versed in. Also, this is a slow one for sure. The pacing was lagging a tad bit and not in a tension building way. It seemed to have taken about 30 minutes before any real intrigue set in for me. I'm not a giant fan of when the exposition is delivered in a single long winded, detailed, spoonfed monologue right before the third act and that did happen with this one. Not the end of the world just not my favorite.
The acting was perfectly fine across the board for me. Some nice moments from everyone and some stilted moments from everyone. A lot of these "issues" seemed to improve as the movie went on. As an indie actor I have an appreciation for what they accomplished and they should be proud. 4.5 rounding up to a 5, would recommend.
