The Shelter

Please join me as I wrestle with an existential crisis, religious symbolism, Michael Paré and a rotisserie chicken:

The Shelter is the debut feature of writer, producer, actor and director John Fallon. It is a psychological and spiritual drama with a brooding horror underneath for good measure.

I would say it is the kind of film that explores the kind of themes that would only get made independently, and I say that as a huge compliment. It is one of the many reasons I am glad, as a website owner and movie reviewer, I get to see independent films: for the ideas.

It stars Michael Paré who has been garnering an incredible amount of praise for his performance, and rightfully so. It is the sort of soulful, captivating, varied and powerful performance that not only breathes every squeak of life into the script and the premise but also keeps an audience glued to their seat, unable to look away. Good thing too because Paréis on screen the whole time and, for most of it, he's alone.

The story of revolves around Paré as Thomas Jacob. He's a drinking, smoking and screwing, down on his luck hobo with twin bags of guilt and self-loathing. Showing up in an unnamed town he drifts from place to place as we slowly learn scraps of his tragic back story. Finally he winds up at an abandoned, new, white, sterile, eerie town house. Once he enters, he is unable to leave and suffers a long a night of soul challenging haunting, visions and dreams. While a little slow and definitely, frustratingly cryptic in places, the movie excels through the lead performance, the direction, the cinematography and the score. Its lush, crisp photography (by Bobby Holbrook), that makes strong use of light and iconography, and Fallon's keen eye for an interesting angle or a curious piece of intriguing symbolism, lends the whole film a rich, disturbing atmosphere.

The colour scheme is particularly effective and different. While some scenes feel realistic, others are photographed in cold blues, odd greens and moody oranges. Such thought and attention has been paid to the overall look of the film, which is wonderful because so many low budget productions forget to do so.

Keen attention has also, clearly, been placed on which film stock and even which film speed to use, especially during the fantasy segments. There are some very striking and beautiful images contained within the film and the production should be applauded for their cinematic achievements. Although kept to a pleasing minimum, the use of CGI is highly effective also.

The score by Shawn Knippelberg is a discordant, moody and different delight! It's never intrusive and always on point, helping and, sometimes, creating the atmosphere of the film. It perfectly accompanies the drama or the delirium as a good score should do. You never quite know where it's coming from, what you're hearing or even what it's being played on and this adds to your sense of unease.

Also, the juxtaposition of the re-occurring folk song is perfectly jarring and a confident stroke that could so easily fail and yet here succeeds beautifully.

A mention here, too, for the small supporting cast. As I said earlier, most of the film is a one- hander with Paré, who is excellent and not to be missed, but in the few key scenes where he is interacting with, mostly, the women in his life they are all very strong performers and distinguish themselves well. Over all the creative and talented successes in this film far outweigh its weaknesses which, for me, came down to the pacing in some places and the ambiguity of the final act. Maybe I have grown jaded on a steady diet of easily explainable and satisfactorily wrapped up Hollywood fare or maybe I don't remember the religious texts that were drilled into me back in school but I did feel that some of the film's intention and meaning was lost on me.

Maybe that was the point. The film is definitely open to interpretation. That is, also, let's be fair, utterly refreshing when compared to other, tried-and-tested, cookie cutter movies. When was the last time you were left asking questions or thinking about what it all means?

In my mind the film is dealing with themes and mostly ideas, emotions and experiences that people keep inside, hidden, gnawing away at them, picking at the thread of their subconscious. It tries its best to visualise and manifest feelings of self pity, self doubt, loss, guilt, anger, regret and everything else our, de facto, hero is carrying around with him. Its with this task that I think the film definitely succeeds. It's the religious underpinnings and possible message that maybe was lost to me but this also means the film will hold up, for me, to repeat viewings and finding new things each time. In the end though, having a satisfactory conclusion or all of your questions answered is not what it's about. It's clearly a very personal, intelligent work of art by an emerging, talented filmmaker and an aging character actor showing he has depth and range with challenging material.

Everyone will take something different from and everyone will find something they think is enjoyable, intriguing, beautiful and/or sinister. Whatever aspect of the piece grabs you then I guarantee it'll be with you a while. I know, for me, the photography, the atmosphere and some of the images will take a long while to shake off.

Either a story is too worldly (secular) or it is too churchy. That is the normal state of affairs. Director John Fallon sees things differently, and should be applauded. This is an excellent film of offered, and rejected, salvation.

Guide: Lots of sex, but not gratuitous Lots of foul language, not gratuitous Some scary scenes, not gratuitous

I've been a Michael Pare' fan since he was in The Greatest American Hero starting back in 1981. I also enjoy Indie movies. Most times I enjoy Indie movies more than the big budget flicks. I also like northern European television shows and movies. This seemed to be a low-key, big time, gritty northern European-style flick. I thought it had great possibilities and looked forward to watching it.

About twenty minutes into it, I thought, "Well, it's started kind of slow but will probably pick up a bit." No, it did NOT pick up. As I watched it, I soon realized that his would be more effective torture than waterboarding. I kept watching it and I just wanted to make it stop. But, I couldn't. I had to see it through to the end. I thought that maybe I had missed something along the way so I'd rewind it here and there. It didn't help. It only prolonged the agony.

It just droned on and on and in so many places there was no explanation for the events. It was disjointed, it was slower than pond water and it really possesses no endearing qualities. Sometimes, like with "Napoleon Dynamite", I'll maybe not get the premise of the movie so I might watch it again and find that the second time, I actually liked the movie. There is no way in hell that I'll watch this movie again. I could not wait for it to end. I wanted to quit watching so many times but I kept hoping some of the events in the movie would be explained. Didn't happen. Someone said that this was a "Christian" movie. Well, if so, then Christian movies are boring as hell. This is not an "in-depth character study." It's the experience of drowning and waiting... and waiting... and waiting for the end to come.

The end, much like my first marriage, couldn't come quick enough.

Rarely will I give a movie simply one star. I tend to see the good in movies, if nothing else, if I can understand the time and acting investment in a movie and appreciate it for that, even if it doesn't gel.

I couldn't do that with this movie. I can see nothing in it. Nothing at all. I want that 76 minutes of my life back... Really I want 228 minutes of my life back because I feel that that movie was three times as long as it actually was.

The Shelter is movie that is really a movie of halves. The first half delves into the depravity of a man who has lost all hope on life..both in the world and mostly in himself. While the second half has the man confronting the demons of his past which forces him to finally atone for his sins.

Thomas (Michael Paré) is a man who is basically eaten alive from the inside out due to circumstances in his past that he just can't seem to escape from. The first half of the movie builds up the story of Thomas, though somewhat vaguely, being down on his luck and a hard boiled hard ass.

While appreciate the attempt of building up the backstory of Thomas, I felt the movie tried to focus a little too heavy on him being a hard ass and womanizer in certain parts rather than build his backstory in a more organic way.

The second half of the movie is where I feel the movie really shines. Thomas finds his way into an empty house and this is where I feel Director John Fallon's horror background really shines.

Fallon crafts an interesting, paranormal and isolated setting for the character Thomas which has him confront his past and ultimately atone for his misdeeds.

There are a lot of religious under and overtones but also the story is open ended enough to let someone interpret the meanings of these religious metaphors according to how they hold their own beliefs.

While I do like a bit of the open natures of the story in the second half I did feel the story could have been LITTLE tighter instead of being as vague as it was in some parts. But then again I determined my own meaning from everything which I am sure could be different for another viewer.

Production wise the movie is ok. Though I felt parts of it were too BRIGHT for the mood the movie was going for. I felt a lot of the bleak and deserted street scenes were very good locations but the look on film was too colorful and bright which kind of killed the mood I thought of the scenery.

Overall, I felt The Shelter was a decent watch though I think the second half of the movie is the superior part of the film whereas the first half I think tried to touch more on making Thomas look macho cool instead of a more tragic character. At least at first.

I would give this a 6.5 if I was able...the .5 coming from seeing director John Fallon get his ass kicked by Thomas in a scene! Always a good day to see that!!

(2015) The Shelter DRAMA/ PSYCHOLOGICAL

Co-produced, written and directed by John Fallon starring Michael Pare as Thomas Jacobs, a broken man, who drinks to forget his misdeeds as we delve a little toward his past as the movie rides along, when he once had a family. And threw it away as a result of his temptations toward another woman. Viewers do not fully see more of those flashbacks until he enters into what appears to be an abandoned household. And once he steps inside, he finds it difficult to leave as he has no actual home to go to anyway. It's very vague about what his occupation used to be and what he is supposed to be feel guilty about, is it really the cheating, or is it the woman he was sleeping with committed suicide ? I am not totally clear on that message. The most obvious thing for him to do if he felt that guilty was to go to church. What is also vague is the status of his daughter, or about the current status of his actual wife for that matter!