Broadcast Signal Intrusion
Director - Jacob Gentry
Writers - Phil Drinkwater & Tim Woodall
Stars: Harry Shum Jr., Kelley Mack, Anthony
E. Cabral
2021, USA
In the late nineties, a loner video archivist still grieving over the loss of his wife stumbles upon infamous pirate broadcasts, becoming obsessed. Harry Shum Jr makes for an untypical and engaging protagonist, guiding us through every frame and Gentry provides great aptitude and directorial flourish in keeping lively what could have been a more static premise. By always searching for an active approach to scenes, by never quite being obvious, Gentry conveys the increasingly panicky and desperate mindset of it flailing protagonist. Oh, and Ben Lovett's laid back score is a treat, namechecking the beloved conspiracy movies that came after Nixon, etc.
It’s
a fascinating film less concerned with resolving than portraying how conspiracy
theorists are never satisfied, using their obsession to fill deeper needs and
losses. Increasingly, everything becomes ominous; ambiguity is the word until it’s
never quite certain what’s a red herring. Maybe a second watch will help or
maybe it will just deepen the mystery: this is the horror of never quite
knowing, of no closure, of the human condition. But there is something to
disturb in a more traditional sense: the broadcasts themselves are unnerving,
the stuff of nightmares as creepy masks and distorted playback tend to be.
Coming Home in the Dark
Director - James Ashcroft
Writers – James
Ashcroft & Eli Kent, (Based on the short story by) Owen Marshall
Stars - Daniel Gillies, Erik Thomson, Miriama McDowell
2021, New Zealand
Sometimes, it’s just a pleasure to have a less playful, more straightforward horror, the aim of which is just to upset and horrify. There is nothing new in ‘Coming Home in the Dark’, but it does take it’s time to reveal its full aim. As soon as a couple of men wander sinisterly into an idyllic family picnic in a New Zealand vista, you know what’s coming. But the cat-and-mouse and mind games here are superior to most, due to a canny script and excellent, non-hammy playing by Daniel Gilles. Superior performances all round and the film makes sure it keeps playing its cards right to the end, not necessarily explaining everything. It never quite overbalances itself and therefore stays upsetting to the very end. A beautifully filmed and haunting thriller.
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