Director: Steve Lawson (as Georg E. Lewis)
Year: 2014
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: The Haunting of Annie Dyer
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Accused of a heinous crime, a woman recounts for the investigating officer her connection to the owner of an apartment she lived in that was secretly bugged by the landlord who owned it which sets off a round of paranormal activity within the apartment that sparks more dangerous revelations.
Review:
Overall, this was a fairly fun erotic supernatural thriller. This is the fun part of the first half here where the film’s more overtly erotic leanings are on display which brings about the later turn to the overt genre elements. Spending the first half dwelling in the sleazier tone here with the interactions involving the police officer owner of the property who either records others performing explicit activity in the apartment or watching her around the apartment thinking she’s alone taking showers or getting undressed to walk around in a towel. This happens frequently enough to provide a solid background for what’s going on with the reveal about what he’s doing this for that allows for the solid introduction of the supernatural activity within the apartment to have some great work to go on.
Once this works through the erotic undertones, the supernatural possession that comes together is quite enjoyable. The initial sequences focusing on the concept of the haunted apartment with the series of interactions within that hint at another force inside targeting her when dealing with the swirling hints of smoke or steam when she’s doing something, there’s some genuinely chilling work at play here that starts to develop into more overt hauntings that look into the more sinister purpose behind it all. This is all explored rather nicely with the final half where it deals with a solid series of reveals that lets everything come together in a surprising manner that isn’t as obvious as expected which helps to end this on a surprising note to give this some likable factors.
There are some factors here that hold this one back. One of the main issues here is the sluggish pacing that takes a while to get going as there’s not much in the way of action for a large part of the running length. Featuring the erotic underpinnings at the expense of the supernatural action, it takes so long until it happens and it takes several attempts before that point as well that it's all quite slow getting to the more overt genre fare with the seeming focus on the constant showering or checking in on the sleazy apartment owner. As a result, that can also make this one fall somewhat in line with the lower budget genre fare where the lack of high-scale effects or production values with it giving off a cheap look without much going on, factors which aren't too detrimental but do hold it back somewhat.
Overview: ***/5
A rather fun erotic supernatural indie effort, this one has quite a lot to like about it which holds it up over a few slight drawbacks which are present throughout here. Those who are fans of this particular style, appreciate the approach taken, or are curious about it while those taken aback by the issues featured here will want to be cautious with this one.
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