This movie has a weird-ass long title, and I honestly didn't know what to make of the description, so I didn't watch this one last year when it premiered on Netflix last year. I just wasn't sure it would be worth checking out, and I got in such a pissy attitude over the bad movies that I saw for last year's challenge that I threw a hissy fit over the idea of watching another one. It's kind of silly, I guess. Seeing bad movies is just part and parcel of participating in the Horror Challenge. I seem to have a more adventurous attitude this year (or it's just too early in the challenge for me to be fed up yet) so I'm interested to see how this movie is.
The description of this movie is annoyingly vague. It's a ghost story within a ghost story? Ok, whatever the fuck THAT means. Actually, it's about a young woman who goes to stay with an aging author in order to be her caretaker. The elderly author, named Iris Bloom, has dementia and lives in a creepy old house built in the 19th century. Soon, the caretaker (Lily) comes to believe that the house is haunted. At first it seemed like this movie takes place in the 19th century, because everything looks so old fashioned, but then Lily Don's some more modern clothes and talks on the phone, and that illusion is shattered. Turns out Lily is just a little old fashioned. Plus I think the filmmakers wanted to confuse us a bit, or at least keep us off- balance and unsure of exactly where and when this movie takes place.
The movie has lots of atmosphere, I'll give it that. The music, the narration from Lily, the often dark and thoroughly creepy old house, it gave me chills. Way to set the scene. And the acting is good. Paula Prentiss as the elderly Iris and Ruth Wilson as Lily both do a great job with their characters. Lily is honestly weird, and she kind of creeps me out as much as the house does, because I feel like she is hiding something from us, not telling us the whole truth. She also talks to herself, but I do that too, so I don't have much room to talk I guess. She's definitely intriguing, though I felt confused and wanted to know what the hell is going on in this movie.
That's how I felt for most of the movie, in fact, creeped out and annoyed and confused. There's a lot of atmosphere, and the narration kind of makes me feel like I'm listening to someone tell me a ghost story, and that's kind of cool I guess. I had time to puzzle over the events onscreen and try to figure out the twist that it seemed was coming (Lily seems to tell us as much, as she keeps insisting that something is going to happen). It's frustrating though, when nothing happens again and again, and the movie keeps playing tricks on us like blurring the screen, or leaving faces in Shadow too dark for us to see, and it starts to feel like a parlor trick.
Atmosphere and scares are great, but there's only so much frosting I can eat before I start to crave cake, some substance at the bottom of this beautiful abyss. Honestly, it feels like unwrapping a beautifully wrapped present only to find out that the box is empty. I was worried this might be the case, and my fears turned out to be justified. This movie is stylish and atmospheric and that's great and all, but it ends up being unsatisfying, at least for me. It's a shame, because there's lots to like here, more than a lot of movies have going for them, but it winds up being all bang with no buck.
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