Follow the Crows

Was extremely impressed with Alex Secker's first directed film! The story was very clever, the actors were brilliant and the shots of scenery were beautiful. Was captivated and gripped through out - well done!

I loved this film. Secker takes the audience on a journey with the characters he immerses you within the story, and you very quickly become emotionally involved with the film. The male and female lead were very natural & believable with their portrayals of the characters and gave superb performances. All of the characters were well developed and everyone in the film gave a good performance. A special mention to Marc Star & Tony Manders who I thought were both extremely menacing and at times both very disturbing this was played by the actors with complete ease. Personally I go to the movies for it to provoke an emotion, this certainly did. It provoked many emotions, it was sad, it was scary, it was grotesque in places and it even had a couple of funny moments.

My only criticism would be that I found it a little slow at the beginning, although saying this I left the cinema wanting more. Alex Secker really is one to watch he is extremely talented and I hope to see many more films of this quality from him.

It's usual to qualify any review of an amateur film with the prefix: "For an amateur production...." It helps the reader lower their expectations as though they were appraising a three year old's first attempt at a self-portrait. For Follow the Crows there is no need for such context. From the understated charisma of the actors, the deft, unpretentious direction and the minimalist screenplay right through to the production and presentation of last night's preview everything about this film screams professional integrity and dedication. Set in the muddy hills and menacing woodlands of a post-apocalypse Britain, it is the story of an unnamed couple thrown together by their mutual need for survival and, ultimately, forgiveness. Filmed on location on a Neolithic path known as The Ridgeway in Wiltshire, the already sodden landscape is washed through a grey filter that provides a beautiful, if stark, backdrop to lives stripped of all but a basic humanity. Only the small log fires illuminating the endless cold nights provide any real colour, any real comfort for the characters that roam the film's bleak setting. Follow the Crows has a touch of Ben Wheatley about it in tone as well as look. Director Alex Secker spares his audience any exposition and we join the characters on their never ending search rather than watch them from a distance. Like them, you work it out as you go along. When the anonymous figure of the hunter begins stalking the former members of a gang escaping from their past and themselves across the hills and through the woodlands, it is up to us, along with them, to work out why they are being picked off. The Hunter (played with consummate understatement by co-script writer and producer Mark Starr) is satisfyingly enigmatic and straightforward at the same time. He is clearly seeking revenge and, once satisfied, can die in peace. Such is the intelligence of the screenplay, he barely needs to speak for us to hear his pain, and it is never certain if he will achieve his aim. Every character, no matter how briefly they appear, is created in full and from scratch. There's the fool-in-motley sidekick to a sadistic and malevolent trapper uncomfortably thrown into moral and actual wilderness that he cannot survive. The middle-aged rapists whose bickering and banal sadism underpins society's slide toward complacent barbarism. The two middle class professionals thrown together in a world they are equpped to do nothing but abandon themselves to. Even the five second appearance of the brooding Roger (the only character given a name in the end credits) has a narrative and moral purpose. At the heart of the film are the stand out performances of the two main characters. First there is The Man - who is essentially good but forced to live with the memory of the evil he has been party to - played with clinical restraint by Max Curtis. Even in the courageous silences through which Secker allows his audience to become part of his landscape, Curtis wears his pain and conviction like the mark of Cain. What vestige of humanity he has managed to save is nurtured and kindled like a camp fire on a rain-soaked hillside by The Woman. Played by a disarmingly natural Daniella Faircloth who skilfully manages to inhabit her character more than portray her, she is a hymn to innocence and experience: victim, killer, vulnerable, powerful, decisive and lost. Dialogue is sparse, exposition is minimal but the story is rich and well told. Making any film is difficult. Producing a full-length feature on a small budget is especially hard. Creating an intelligent film that never flags, rejects cliché and looks this good takes a superhuman form of dedication. It is clear that everyone involved in this production deserves the highest possible praise and should be justifiably proud of their work. I look forward to their next project, because there surely must be one.

People wander about in the countryside, have campfires. One or two of them kill each other. That is literally it. There is no narrative of any kind, really. It takes an unconvincingly one-dimensional take on human nature, and hinges almost entirely on an emotional backstory, which is very flimsy and shoddily told. Consequently - and because of the lack of events - it is very boring, with a mind-numbingly dull performance by the male lead. We are asked to care about the relationship between him and the female lead - who is much better - but this is hollow. Poor script, poor acting. Very nicely filmed though, with a decent score. Shame as it opened very well - but it's as if the creative imagination was depleted after the first 5 minutes. I now realise this is an amateur production, so I heartily encourage to try again, but this time include emotionally compelling imagery and events, rather than lots of conversations, to drive the character development and emotional narrrative, for example the handcuff scene towards the beginning is first class.

I really enjoyed this bleak and atmospheric post-apocalyptic film. It sets a mood and doesn't try to offer any explanations. It simply offers up a picture of a world and some characters that makes me feel for them.

There are obvious signs of the minimal budget and the lack of professional script writing but the director uses the available resources to his advantage. Simply by using the camera with natural scenery and lighting we are offered a believable portrait of emotionally stunted survivors aimlessly trying to survive a harsh world.

I really look forward to the next project from this team.