Shepherd review: Rarified atmosphere, common horror-movie problem

The brand new Scottish horror-drama Shepherd suffers from a basic case of Useless Spouse Syndrome, a storytelling ailment the place a protagonist’s eager for/guilt over their deceased partner dictates the plot in a reductive, predictable manner. The first symptom of this widespread illness is a flashback the place the useless spouse appears over her shoulder on the digital camera as daylight frames her hair, which is tousled in an unselfconsciously horny manner. In Shepherd, that standard-issue flashback comes when the spouse is strolling on a cold Scottish seashore in a tartan skirt and leather-based jacket, blissfully unaware of the frigid demise that awaits her within the sea past.

That isn’t the one field on the DWS guidelines that Shepherd ticks, both. It additionally encompasses a conspicuously positioned ultrasound picture indicating she was pregnant when she died. And a protagonist experiencing frequent jump-scare nightmares about her funeral. And unstated secrets and techniques concerning the circumstances of her demise. All of the signs are current: Shepherd’s prognosis is indeniable.

It’s potential for a movie to beat Useless Spouse Syndrome — take The Changeling, the 1980 haunted-house basic that begins with George C. Scott retreating to a secluded mansion to mourn his spouse and daughter. However Shepherd isn’t distinctive sufficient to beat the situation. A Discovery of Witches’ Tom Hughes stars as Eric Black, the grieving husband, who takes a job as a solitary caretaker for a flock of sheep on a distant island off Scotland’s western coast. When the film begins, Eric’s spouse and unborn baby are already useless, so he can’t be pushed to homicide them. Past that, parallels to Stephen King’s The Shining start straight away with the introduction of a milky-eyed sea captain performed by Kate Dickie, the British character actor who starred in The Witch and was just lately noticed in The Inexperienced Knight and The Northman.

It’s by no means completely clear whether or not Dickie’s character is an actual, flesh-and-blood particular person, or the merciless manifestation of Eric’s struggling conscience. Both manner, after serving because the Charon on Eric’s private boat to Hades, she tortures him with taunting cellphone calls that velocity up his Shining-style fast descent into remoted insanity. (Your entire movie, from Eric’s arrival on the island to the story’s decision, unfolds over the course of a few week.) Other than Dickie’s threatening voice, Eric’s solely companion for almost all of the movie is his canine Baxter, whose arc earns this movie a set off warning for the type of animal-lovers who hang-out DoesTheDogDie.com. After which there’s the lighthouse, which clanks like a junk-store robotic and comes full of ominous taxidermy.

There’s a good quantity of upsetting imagery in Shepherd, not all of it involving animals. Eric additionally engages in some self-harm, and a gaunt, wind-blown specter of demise actually follows him round all through the movie. The precise occasions of Shepherd are largely phantasmagorical in nature: As soon as he arrives on the island, Eric explores his rugged environment, has nightmares about his late partner Rachel (Gaia Weiss), and retains himself awake at night time leaping at shadows. That’s about it, apart from the scene the place he finds a dusty journal and opens to a web page studying, “She’s a witch! She’s right here!” (That thread will get misplaced virtually instantly, nevertheless it does set an eerie tone.)

Picture: Saban Movies

The thought of a nautical haunted-house film is interesting, and writer-director Russell Owen does have a knack for creating eerie ambiance. This pairs properly with cinematographer Richard Stoddard’s appreciation for the movie’s desolate, windswept places, which he captures in a extra dynamic vary of colours than one may count on from heavy clouds, moist rocks, and dry grass. There’s some eye-catching shade work happening on this movie on the whole, mixed with settings that look lived-in sufficient that it’s exhausting to inform whether or not they have been pre-existing places or units created for the movie. They’re putting both manner.

These components make up for a few of the film’s low-budget limitations, like a crude rear-projection shot and off-the-rack make-up results. However for Shepherd to actually transcend its rickety bits and its story clichés, it could have to give you extra resonant and artistic pictures than Owen is ready to produce right here. Flayed sheep, blue-skinned useless individuals, the Grim Reaper: the symbolism on this movie comes from a darkish, despairing place, but in addition a well-known, much-expected one. Mixed with the influences bobbing proper on the floor of the script — The Lighthouse is one other huge one — Shepherd is extra of a bandwagon-jumping train in arthouse horror movies about grief than a very bone-chilling instance of 1.

Shepherd premieres in theaters on Might 6 and will probably be obtainable for digital rental or buy on Might 10.