Clifton Hill

This film is nicely acted, richly atmospheric, memorably scored and often very dull.

The opening scenes are effective, but not really intriguing enough to hang 1 hour and 40 minutes of anyone's time onto. David Cronenberg makes a rare acting appearance as Walter. The performance isn't memorable, unlike Tuppence Middleton as main character Abby, who is the most consistently good reason to keep watching. For its slowness, there's also a chaos about the way in which the thin story is told, possibly to engage our interest.

The incidental score by Alex Sowinski and Leland Whitty has attracted comment. A mixture of minimalist ambience and a jazzy cacophony, it reminded me in parts of Yvon Garault's music for French director Jean Rollin's early films. An acquired taste for sure, but I really enjoyed it.

It seems director and co-writer Albert Shin was aiming for a small-town David Lynchian atmosphere here, but whilst the style is there, the ability to concoct an engaging or eccentric narrative drags a little over the running time. This is a shame, because with about 20 minutes pruning, the quietly effective moments could have been a lot more powerful. For all that, there is an interesting (possible) twist at the end. My score is 6 out of 10.