Review by Gary Tooze

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• HDNet Looks at the Eclipse (4:39)

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Description: Michael Farr (Ciarán Hinds), a teacher raising his two kids alone since his wife died two years earlier, has been seeing and hearing strange things late at night. He isn't sure if he is having nightmares, or if he's experiencing a haunting. Working as a volunteer for an international literary festival, he is assigned to Lena Morelle (Iben Hjejle), an author of books about ghosts and the supernatural. Establishing a rapport with one another, Michael opens up and shares his terrifying experiences with her. However, Lena's attention is distracted by another novelist, Nicholas Holden (Aidan Quinn), with whom she had a brief affair. The trajectories of these three people lead them into a life-altering collision where the challenges of love, fear of the unknown, and release from the burden of grief are explored.

 

 

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Audio :

It's a modest lossless DTS-HD Master 5.1 at 1881 kbps. The track is fairly passive but can jump alive in the 'shock' sequences. The penetrating and punching bass can jump you out of your seat but it's not quite at the level of some larger film budget sound transfers. What I really enjoyed was the music - a lot of haunting solo piano and the like. It really established some scenes very well. There are optional subtitles.

Extras :

Not much in the way supplements with a decent Making of for under a 1/2 hour with some soundbytes from the principles and the better-than-usual HDNet pice for five minutes with Ciarán Hinds giving input plus Magnolia Trailers. I think the film deserved more - but what can we do?

BOTTOM LINE:
Well, just another film that I thoroughly enjoyed and shake my head at the lackluster critical response. Maybe I am just not discerning enough. What I suspect is that people have become so jaded with over-the-top horror films that they seem to think the norm is supercilious excess. This is the opposite of those cheesy and exploitive genre films that tend to rake in all the money. This is classy, intelligent and the 'scare-factor' is at a sufficient minimum. What I will say is to adjust your expectations to something that stylishly explores its own narrative as opposed to pushing the envelope of your fear buttons. The Blu-ray is limited technically - for both a/v and extras - but I still enjoyed the presentation. The price may seem high to some but it is probably dependant on your ability to receive pleasure from this unique film. I did but, as I say, many may be expecting something... different.