A Chronicle of Corpses

We just finished watching this film and are in the process of poking out our eyes. The only bright part of this movie was the superb acting performance by the baby. Fat bastard's cameo helps, along with Elmer Fudd hunting with Bob Newhart but nothing can redeem this travesty of the silver screen. No, those actors were not in the film, but making fun of the dead script, hollow characters and aggravating plot line was the only way to get through 90 minutes of sheer boredom. Watch for the historical inaccuracies that abound. Director-producer-editor Andrew Repasky McElhinney need not worry that anyone would ever copy or redistribute his masterpiece. We have just signed up for electro-shock therapy - please pray for us!

The kid who made this movie shows films at the public library every week. It's as if he's been spending the last ten years showing his favorite films so we'd understand his. A Chronicle of Corpses is unlike anything else, it is spectactually gorgeous and deeply haunting while the mystery and ambiguity is terminal and exactly the point. More like music than cinema.

I missed this film at the 2002 (2003?) Philadelphia International Film Festival and being a fan of horror film-- and always fond of the local arts-- I was excited to see this made it onto DVD. Sadly, this film managed to put me to sleep. Twice. I'm sorry to say there isn't a single good thing about this film. The acting is atrocious; every character speaks in the same drunken, wispy tone, and none of them speak to each other, instead giving high school grade monologues that drone on indefinitely. The photography and editing are lackluster, and it seems that no one bothered to think about consistency of color. No matter, though, because this film did remind me that M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village" is due out soon and is of a similar theme.

A brilliant effort by a young director and writer. The cinematography is superb, with each transitional scene reminiscent of a major painter, such as Vermeer, Caravaggio, Da Vinci, or Goya. While the story itself is relatively simple, the telling probes the psyches of its characters with a masterful insight into their collective anxieties about their pending fates, and a thematic breadth superb in its brevity. Even if one were to take issue with the writing, the visuals alone are worth the viewing. It was also refreshing to hear a well-selected choice of master composers accompanying each major scene. It is to be hoped that Mr. McElhinney will develop his style and become a major force in new cinema.

A Chronicle of Corpses is not a movie for those looking for big scares or gore-filled killings. Rather, the movie provides its audience with long takes that border on making the audience feel uncomfortable or unsettled with light musical cues. The film relies on building tension through scenes that feel like vignettes of a dysfunctional and unattached family. Overall, I found slow panned shots through the woods and scenes framed like paintings to be reminiscent of David Lynch's style of slowly building tension and confusion until the climax where one is unsettled and yet still left with some grander questions. That said, while the family is supposed to be out of touch some of their performances seem wooden and uninspired and as the body count increases I felt neither a sympathy for the victims nor was I interested in cheering on the "mysterious presence."