Director: Lawrie Brewster
Year: 2013
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: The Owl Man
Genre: Psychological
Plot:
After learning of his mother’s death, a man returns to her ancestral estate to take over the property, which allows him to start a relationship with a mysterious woman next door, which soon brings them into contact with a deranged figure that proves to be starting a deadly chain of events.
Review:
Overall, this was a fairly solid and likable genre effort. Among the better factors within this one is the strong setup that provides this with a fantastic psychological setup that works rather well. The cliched notion of going back to a family house after they’ve died and being inherited by the house serves as a fine way to bring him back to the grounds where the burgeoning mystery that flows from the area makes for a fun time here, allowing everything to come to fruition. The exploits hanging around the house, looking into the various rooms or other locations around the grounds of the house, or the bizarre interactions with the neighbor that seem to hint at something happening in the house. With the ties to the strange figure lurking in the background, which utilizes the area’s history and connection to strange appeasement rituals that keep it at bay, there’s not just a creepy atmosphere throughout here but also a generally intriguing storyline.
This manages to provide a strong starting point for the series of encounters with the strange figure, looking to ensure that the process is carried out. The starting point of these encounters with the different scenes with the neighbor gives way to the visions and hallucinations to illuminate the idea of the spiritual figure appearing to him with a series of taunts and torments that go through the intention of getting into the son’s head to understand his purpose for being there. Those take place in a strikingly impressive manner with the blacked-out surroundings and distorted visuals, which work nicely with the storyline revelations, taking advantage of the creepy design of the main figure and bringing everything together into an immensely effective setup to help enhance the impending psychological breakdown at the core of the film. This all comes across a bit late in the game with the slow-burn build-up taking up way too much of the first half, but as it’s the main flaw alongside the cheap look of everything, there’s not much else holding this down.
Overview: ****/5
An immensely effective and eerie genre effort, there’s quite a lot to enjoy here, which helps to overcome a few minor flaws that drop it down only slightly. Those with an interest in this style, who appreciate the approach featured here or are fans of the creative crew, will have the most to like here, while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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