Shadow (2009)
Distributor: Entertainment One
DVD Release date: 23rd May (UK)
Directed by: Federico Zampaglione
Starring: Jake Muxworthy, Karina Testa, Nuot Arquint
Review by: Stephanie Scaife
Shadow is to be the first film released by FrightFest Features, a new joint venture with FrightFest and Wild Bunch that will be releasing genre material in the UK through distributor Entertainment One. Unsurprisingly, FrightFest was where Shadow first premiered back in 2009. At the time I remembered being decidedly underwhelmed by the film, making it a slightly disappointing choice to launch this new FrightFest venture. I was interested to revisit it to see if it improved any with multiple viewings but much to my annoyance it was perhaps even worse the second time around.
From first time director Federico Zampaglione, better known in Italy as a musician, Shadow is a bizarre mishmash of various horror genres starting off as a Deliverance style backwoods thriller, switching midway through into a surreal torture horror akin to the likes of Hostel (for a lazy comparison) or the lesser known British horror film Creep from 2005, surmounting in an unforgiveable shock ending taking it down a notch from being mediocre to just plain bad.
David (Jake Muxworthy) is a young soldier newly out of Afghanistan who is on a mountain biking holiday around Europe, he meets up with another young traveller named Angeline (Karina Testa) and they quickly hit it off. However, their newly kindled romance is soon jeopardised by a pair of asshole idiotic hunters who take an instant dislike to young couple, pursuing them through the mountainous woodland in a banal cat and mouse fashion.
This all seems to happen very quickly and inexplicably and is fairly generic, then out of nowhere Shadow takes a major turn and changes into an almost entirely different film. David and the two hunters, having been caught up in various traps, find themselves in a remote but surprisingly well stocked bunker, held prisoner by the incredibly creepy Mortis (Nuot Arquint), one of the strangest looking protagonists that I’ve seen in a long time. He is freakishly tall and skinny, enjoys watching old news footage of genocide and various other atrocities whilst indulging in a bizarre frog licking habit. This second half of the film is the stronger of the two and it has some striking imagery, mostly due to the remarkable presence of Arquint, as well as a few decent gory moments. But overall the whole thing is so inconsistent that it is difficult to be invested in any of the characters or the plot.
So, in the space of about 70 minutes we’re essentially given 2 halves of 2 very different sorts of films, seemingly unrelated in tone and narrative except for the same central characters. Then in the last 5 minutes we’re treated to the mother of all narrative cop-out endings, which may kinda sorta offers an explanation of sorts for the incoherent mess that had come before it, but it doesn’t stop the entire film being an infuriatingly indulgent mess.
The DVD I viewed was a bog standard check-disc so I can’t comment on what wondrous special features may be in store, but it is released in the UK on 23rd May and is currently widely available in the US.