The patriarch of a family dies, his wife who is very much in to new age cures, brings in a shaman to restore him to life. His daughter does not like the idea. Then again what could go wrong?
This is an odd film that one one hand want to deeply disturb and scare the hell out of you and on the other it wants to examine family relationships and how we view the death of a loved one... and our lives. It's an interesting idea, that works in pieces and moments but which never pulls it all together in the ending. No seriously, what exactly is that ending?
I absolutely love the deeply disturbing mood this film creates. This is one of the most emotionally bothersome films of the last five years. I don't want to be there. The sequences with the care of the father remind me of when my mom was really sick. Flashbacks and then some. The second half of the film, the part dealing nominally with the ressurection and the dealing with past trauma is distubing for a variety of reasons, not the least of which it puts us in a place no cinematic treatment of grief or horror, has ever placed us. Its a place of raw exposed emotions.
The problem is that the narrative doesn't work. Yes, it get the emotion right, but the narrative drifts off and what for about half the film was set in a reality, becomes something that feels like it's a metaphor or something symbolic. Is any of this real? Are the characters alive? I don't know and by the time we get to the final shot, which should be cathartic, is instead a giant WTF burger. I went from willing to give the film a benefit of the doubt, because I knew it would pull it out, to wondering how it could go so wrong.
It's so disappointing.
That said, most of the film is creepy and scary enough it's worth a try, just expect it to crash and burn as the end credits roll.
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