Director: Eros D'Antona
Year: 2022
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: The Solemn Vow
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Hired to be a special babysitter, a woman covertly using the experience to search for her missing sister learns that her charge is a young boy who is in a coma, and when she tries to figure out what’s going on with her charge learns the demonic spirit at the center of everything.
Review:
This wasn’t all that bad of a low-budget genre effort. The simplistic and straightforward story here allows this to work rather well with the quick explanation of events and beginning everything together rather nicely. With her arrival, there being designed as a ruse to begin her investigation into what happened, and letting that fuel the series of hauntings while she stays there, which hints at something far more intriguing behind the surface of her appearance, this allows the film to bring together some fun moments. As the different clues around the house start to paint a picture of something sinister going on, including the strange diary entries, series of odd photographs, and other objects found in the house that show something happened to not just her friend she’s looking for but also what caused the child she’s looking after to suffer the condition, this comes off with the kind of chilling atmosphere that’s immensely likable and enjoyable the longer she stays there. With the first half being loaded with jump-scares showing the figure inside the house helping to expand this rather nicely, there are some likable and worthwhile elements on display.
The whole series of revelations brought about here, which are focused on the second half, bringing about the true reason for the haunting and what’s really going on, has some worthwhile factors while also being part of its main flaws. The gradual discovery of what the actual figure is and what’s going on in the house regarding how the different symbols and arcane writings are leading to feature a wholly chilling idea about how she’s being targeted by a demonic being summoned to the family originally that caused his affliction in the first place, so everything is given a genuinely thrilling concept that comes about. However, this is done at such a sluggish pace in the second half, where it’s really difficult to stay invested in what’s going on when it’s got hardly anything but her looking through photo albums, reading journals, and talking with her friend on video chat, which gives everything such a lethargic setup. It also doesn’t help that this quite obviously removes a lot of the overt genre elements from the film is kept to a minimum with the lack of interactions here, moving this away from horror for endless conversations instead that drain the pacing overall, and with the low-budget on display, holding this down.
Overview: **/5
An okay if somewhat problematic indie effort, there are some worthwhile elements at play here that make it worthwhile even with the series of flaws on display to keep it down in the long run. Those with an appreciation for this style, who aren’t bothered by the flaws on display or who are fans of the creative crew, will have the most to like here, while most others should heed caution.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
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