Syn

Scary naked old people, welcome back, I haven’t seen you for a long time! It’s obvious that in his new film, a story about a mother and a son haunted by the sectarian past of their ancestors, Ivan Kavanagh wanted to make a new Hereditary. Unfortunately, he’s not as visionary and innovative as Ari Aster, but he’s no bum either and the film is watchable – there are a couple of pretty creepy moments, especially in the first half. The problem in my view is that it’s all about the uncertainty of whether there’s really something demonic or cultic going on or whether those weird things are the product of the ruined mind of the mother, who in her youth was a victim of a heinous crime that didn’t involve anything supernatural, and Kavanagh is not able to sell that well enough to make it interesting. I'd much rather play with clearly laid out cards and watch either the inevitable fall into madness or the slowly tightening loop of a supernatural evil, but this film’s approach works on the edge of both, which is also associated with several problems in the script, focused mainly around Emile Hirsch’s police officer and the behaviour of the mother, and they can be almost painful to watch. For instance, when, after she “kidnaps” her son from the hospital, “everyone is looking everywhere” for the protagonist, but she’s at home and has hidden her son at the neighbour’s, i.e. the first and second place that “everyone should search”. The ending justifies some of the stuff we’ve seen, but the road there was quite bumpy. 6/10 (25.02.2021)

Talented director Ivan Kavanagh, who lives 20 kilometres from me, delivers an atmospheric, uncomfortable, superbly acted and executed horror film about the lengths a mother will go to save her sick son! The director's previous effort, The Canal, was better, but I'm happy with this one as well. The film moves at a slower pace, but compared to Saint Maud and The Night, it's definitely more fun. I liked the mysterious atmosphere where the doctors, the main characters and the viewer have no idea what is happening to the son and that some pretty unpleasant things are happening to him. I also have to praise the gore, there are four brutal scenes that are really well shot and disturbing enough. The two jump-scares also worked and I liked the denouement with a rather unexpected twist. I got what I expected from the film. That is, well acted, well shot, dark, brutal, atmospheric, disturbing with elements of the supernatural and dark detective fiction. Some may not enjoy it, it's more for the more attentive viewers, but I certainly didn't fall asleep with boredom this time. Story****, Action>No, Humor>No, Violence****, Entertainment***, Music***, Visual****, Atmosphere****, Suspense***. 7/10. (25.02.2021)