Bringing back a dead child is never a good idea!
The pain of the loss of a child that dies horribly. The grief stricken parents that are trying to put their lives back together after the senseless tragedy. The ceremony that brings back the dead girl so that mommy and daddy can be with her again...but only for 3 days. Sigh...haven't these people seen Pet Sematary? Nothing good ever comes of this. But for some reason I'm going to be lenient with this picture, because I can tell that a lot of work and effort went into it, and it's well acted. It's just a pretty good little parable about knowing when to let go, and that too much of a good thing, might just be that. But let's dig in:
We are introduced to Patrick (Aiden Gillen) and Louise (Eva Birthistle) and their daughter Alice (Ella Connolly). They have just moved into the town of Wake Wood and everything is going swell. Dad works at a...well i'm not exactly sure what they do where he works. It's just the first scene at his job, has him splitting open the side of cow and pulling out a baby calf. I thought it was kind of gross, but anyway...they get Alice a hamster. Alice goes next door to a kennel of some sort and the big dog doesn't seem to like the hamster, and despite the fact that Alice has brought it some meat...the dog bites out her throat. The parents are devastated.
Now we move forward in time. The mom is still having trouble letting go, but Patrick is trying to force it. We learn that Louise works at a pharmacy when I girl with asthma comes in the store with her mom and tries to get a refill that is over a year old. So they are driving in the rain one night (I cant' remember where they were going or why) and the car mysteriously just quits on them. So they hike to Patrick's employers house, but no one appears to be home. That's when Louise goes around back and watches a ritual of some kind where it appears that a man is birthed from mud. Shaken she runs away, but Patrick's boss Arthur (Timothy Spall of Harry Potter fame), is in their house and tells them that they can bring their daughter back...but only for 3 days and in order to say a proper goodbye. All of this will work provided the girl has been dead less than a year.
Patrick tells him that she has been dead 11 months and 3 days or something to that effect, so they proceed with the ceremony. Alice comes back alright, but even though she is cute as a button, there is just something not right about her...and then the newly found dog that they nursed to health is found horribly mutilated...and Alice is re-enacting her "birth" by pushing dolls through garbage bags...and her fingers and nails are dirty. And then the townsfolk all show up and tell the parents, she needs to go back early, something is wrong. And we get to see that as we race towards the finale, which I found to be kind of clever and would like a sequel to see just what happens when...but that would be telling.
I think the performances here are pretty spot on. The film has a very nice look to it, and the proceedings are rather grim. The mythology behind the ritual is well done, and involves some very ghastly scenes. Of particular note, they have to get a "token" from their daughter that involves digging up her grave. I have to say this scene was hard to watch, as they have to look at thier skeletal daughter's face and snip off one of her fingers. Also of note is a "death by cow" scene that looked really painful and is something I don't think i've ever witnessed in a film before. The cinematography is quite breathtaking, and the gore is not exactly plentiful...but we do get to see Alice do some ghastly things and some blood does flow. Overall, i'd sum this up as a cross between Pet Sematary and The Wicker Man (not the Nick Cage one, but the original), and I kind of thought it worked for the most part.
8 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment