Without Name

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.

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...

An Irish surveyor gets stuck in a possibly haunted forest.

As I was watching this, I thought to myself, "This reminds me a bit of Vivarium." Turns out the same guy directed both movies. I'm not sure what exactly triggered that thought, but this is just as slow-paced and lonely as Vivarium. If anything, it's even slower paced.

Again, I don't really think this was a horror movie so much as a psychological thriller. If you come into this expecting monsters and gore, you'll be pretty disappointed. It's very European and influenced by 60s and 70s movies, I think. If you're into 70s folk horror, you'll probably enjoy this more than the IMDb rating suggests.

Ireland has some really beautiful forests. I can understand why filmmakers spend so much time shooting in them. Still, Without Name goes to extremes with endless shots of trees and nature. It's very pretty and makes me want to go explore a forest, but a bit more plot and fewer lingering shots of trees would have been nice.

The actors are pretty good, but you'll mostly be following Alan McKenna around the forest. The forest itself is pretty much his costar, though some other characters show up. The sound effects and score give the forest a Blair Witch atmosphere. It was eerie at times, but I'm honestly not especially fond of that whole Blair Witch thing.

If you don't mind a slow pace and a LOT of (pretty) shots of trees, this is worth checking out. If you're expecting bloodthirsty faeries to slash their way through a group of teenage friends, skip it.

"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)

The natural world, with its serenity and stillness, brings comfort for many. For Eric, a land surveyor who heads to the woods solely to escape a shattered marriage, it brings something else. Summoned by a mysterious client to a cabin far from the concrete dullness of his suburban home, Eric eagerly awaits the arrival of Olivia who is both surveying partner and mistress. Olivia encourages Eric to live his dreams, yet he is a man who has none. Within the mist and moss covered forest, shadows intrude. The stillness combined with obtrusive locals, unsettle something in Eric's psyche.

Without Name immerses the audience in a surreal world filled with spectral auras and tones. The forest alternately glows and darkens, appearing like a dance floor where possibilities brighten in the flickering light, then dissipate into murkiness again. I love this film theme, where reality and dreams merge together and become indistinguishable from each other. I only wish the dialogue and action sequences were as deep as the film themes. Seen at the Miami International Film Festival.