Fantasia Fest 2013: A Deep Dark Hole in the Woods (review: ‘LES GOUFFRES’ & ‘ACROSS THE RIVER’)

Pupils of fright, are you still with me? Are your truncated attention spans medicated with caffeine and hashtags? Good. Cause we are far from over, despite the fact that Fantasia Fest 2013 is winding down, soon returning to its slimy nest after another epic edition. Enough about me though, let’s get on with the backlog:

Les Gouffres

(France, 2012)

Not being someone who shies away from the term highbrow, I try to take in as much substance as possible, feeding my left hemisphere with “art”. Much like vegetables, you also need your daily brain candy. However, if art is like pornography (you know it when you see it), then Les Gouffres is also like pornography: I know that I saw it.

Directed by Antoine Barraud, Les Gouffres tells the story of a woman’s descent into complete madness, catalyzed by her refusal to deal with the role society has chosen for her. At least, that’s what I got out of it. Much like Neil Marshall’s The Descent, another statement on the cavernous subject of mental health from a female perspective, the sudden appearance of sinkholes in rural “somewhereoranother”, sends a speleologist and her opera singing wife to investigate these happenings. Abandoned to her hotel room while her husband mucks around in the caves, she starts to lose grip with reality and fears that her husband goes missing for good. Or is this really her primary concern? Left to her own musings, she starts to have visions of the large empty spaces and questions the reality around her. Does this have anything to do with the fact that opening night to her latest Opera is rapidly approaching and she is less than enthused with the character she is reading/singing for? While worrying sick about her husband, bizarre and fantastical characters start to pay her visits, but are they real? Not satisfied with the roles she was given in both her fictional and real world situation, is she creating her own form of escape?

What amounts to essentially a movie about waiting for something to happen, each scene gives viewers something interesting to look at and work with. Little nuggets of information are given to the viewer regarding the origin of the sinkholes and their supposed effect on the population. People are drawn to them and maybe their presence is something more spiritual than physical. From a photography perspective, I was fascinated at the level of detail found in each frame: from the lighting to the lush backdrop: this film is velvet for the eyes, just be careful not to fall asleep (guilty!)

What’s unnerving about Les Gouffres is how gracefully the woman’s loss of her grip on reality is handled, and how easily we get used to this idea. I don’t know what this says about us in general (especially with regards to gender stereotypes) but if that is what Antoine Barraud set out to do, then I say good job.

Despite the fact that I found myself looking at my watch several times throughout this curious little piece, I wouldn’t let it dissuade you from exploring this deep black hole before it disappears forever.

Across the River

(Italy, 2013)

Fantasia 2013 is ripe this year with thematic, old fashioned slow burn chillers and Lorenzo Bianchini’s icy Across the River (international premiere) is probably my favorite pick of the litter. While everything comes together in the last 10 minutes, the setup to the third act was peppered with enough tiny red herrings to keep you hooked until the last frame.

Marco Marchese plays a well-respected biologist surveying the animal population of a forested area covering the border between Italy and Slovania. I don`t know how current your world history knowledge is, but let’s just say a lot of stuff happened around there not too long ago. As he collects his data, he starts to notice strange signs that a new type of predator may be causing a little trouble for his little critter friends. This leads him to discover an abandoned stone village in the woods that, unbeknownst to him, has a nasty past that some people want to keep buried for good. The past….pffft, that can’t come back to haunt you right?

As the danger meter slowly creeps up, and the tension eventually boils over, the viewer is taken by the hand through the narrow passages of a cobble stone nightmare that time forgot. Stuck to face this terror head on, you really get the sense in this film that we are all at mercy to the elements, whether they be natural or supernatural. The scares are few and far between, the pacing preferring to get you creeped out rather than actually “scared”. I’m still disturbed by some of the imagery I’ve witnessed, some of the best in a long time actually, and fans of good old fashioned ghost stories will leave pleasantly surprised. Sound wise, the noise of running water trickling away or things crying out in the woods instinctively make the hairs on the back of our necks rise and the production team definitely uses this to their advantage. By manipulating our most reptilian of instincts (fight or flight) they successfully created that oppressive atmosphere of dread we all chase in these types of film. There is also something to be said of the lasting power of survivalist horror. Whether it be cannibals in the jungle, a hillbilly psycho in the woods, a wild beast on the loose, etc….most of the time, the idea of what lies beyond the unbeaten path is all you need to get you going.

Contrary to past Italian shockers where everything was laid out for you in bright bloody fashion, Across the River prefers to chain you along, bondage style, keeping you hostage and barely conscious until the very end, where in a few swift moves, it beats the living shit out of you with a leather belt to the eyes.

Highly recommended.

Well that’s it for now, as per usual, stay strapped in and ready for more accounts of my ocular atrocities, including a write up of Clive Barker’s History of the Devil, a uniquely live experience Fantasia fans had the pleasure of experiencing this year.

So long sunshine, I’m out!

Jo Satana Shabadoo