Director: Lawrie Brewster
Year: 2016
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Psychological
Plot:
Trying to clear his head, a tormented war veteran decides to take a break from life in the Scottish highlands to see if he can get back to a semblance of normality, but when he finds himself stalked by a strange group of winged creatures must try to figure out it’s purpose to save his sanity.
Review:
On the whole, this was an intriguing if somewhat flawed genre effort. What works best with this one is the immensely effective look into the work of grief and despair that comes about by observing the main figure here. The exploration of his traumatic condition is handled rather strongly with the backstory about his harrowing military service that led to the death of his unit, and the need for closure on what transpired makes everything that takes place here feel not just immensely chilling but also quite earned. The immediate nature of the whole situation spells it out quickly and efficiently, with how he needs to come to terms with what’s going on and why the trip is necessary, which soon gives way to the satisfying and harrowing series of encounters throughout here that follow, keeping him from accomplishing his mission.
That comes about through a series of effective and never-ending types of encounters and visions that are impossible to tell the difference. Whether it’s the interactions with the doppelganger version of himself constantly telling him to kill himself, the constant need to flashback on the past to get a grip on the military tragedies he’s affected by, and the believing that there’s something wrong with the crop of birds constantly on his every move, or it’s the visions of the creatures pulling apart the bodies of their victims who are trapped inside a nether-realm of sorrow, the eerie and effective atmosphere throughout here are so well handled that it’s sometimes hard to distinguish the truth for hallucination. This leads perfectly into the strong finale where the whole thing becomes an immensely entertaining and emotionally charged battle that deals with the grief and trauma of war in a wholly captivating way as well as the generally effective means of tying together the folklore of the area with the graphic visuals, all making for a lot to really like here.
There are some issues to be had with this one. The main overarching factor against the film is the generally repetitive nature of the storyline, where it feels incredibly one-note about how the general torments and psychological warfare play out. With nearly everything here going for the kind of overly-familiar mind-games usually found here with the use of disfigured doubles, meandering scenes of nothingness while a demented and disturbing speech plays out, or flash visuals of something inhuman standing around watching everything, this one does come off with a recognizable and repetitive style. It’s not generally noticeable, but it does start to play its hand when it starts going for the same thing later on to help tell its story about the connection between the raven-creature and the torments of his past, trying to influence him. These issues, alongside the obvious low-budget quality on display, all manage to bring this one down.
Overview: ****/5
An effective and rather strong psychological genre effort, there’s quite a lot to enjoy with this one that manages to hold up over a series of minor and somewhat non-detrimental issues. Those with an appreciation for this style of indie feature, aren’t bothered by the drawbacks on display, or are fans of the creative crew, will have the most to like here, while most others might want to heed caution.
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