There are certain places that will always feel a little bit creepy, places where humanity have failed to really make much of a dent thanks to the in hospitability of the land, and where nature still rules. In Britain this is the moors. A desolate, dangerous place, they're creepy enough on their own, but when coupled with murder it makes it all the more spine chilling. The Moor makes great use of this location, and will end up leaving you wary of ever setting foot in the place.
Beginning with a flashback to the 1990's, we meet a young girl, Claire, and her friend, Danny. The two of them want some sweets but don't have the money to get any. Claire, set up as something of a troublemaker here, forms a plan with Danny where he'll distract the shopkeeper by pretending to be lost whilst she fills her bag with stolen sweets. The plan works and Claire grabs the goods, but there's no sign of Danny. Heading into the shop, she asks the owner about her friend, who informs her that everything is okay because his dad collected him; except Claire knows Danny's dad is away on business. And thus, Danny becomes the latest victim in a series of child abductions.
Following an credits scene that shows the impact of the child abductions on the small Yorkshire community we jump forward to the present day where Claire (Sophia La Porta) has grown up and moved away from her old home, having tried her hand at being an entertainment podcaster. She's come back, however, to see Bill (David Edward-Robertson), Danny's father, who's still out searching the moors for any sign of his son. Despite the killer being in prison many of the missing children have still never been found, and this haunts Bill and has forever changed his life. Despite her reservations, Claire is convinced to help Bill, to try and raise awareness of his search using her media influence.
The two of them begin searching the moors, but when talking to one of the police investigators at the time, played by the late great Bernard Hill, Claire realises that they're searching a small part of the massive moors, and that it's miles away from where the police looked back in the 90's. This is how Claire learns that Bill is making use of a dowser, Alex (Mark Peachey) and his psychic daughter Eleanor (Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips) to narrow the search. The sceptical Claire soon comes to see that there might be something more than the ordinary at play, and that there is something dark waiting for them out on the moors.
The Moor is a film that likes to play it slow, and spends a great deal of its time building up the character and story before anything overtly frightening happens. It's a choice that I think does the film a great service, and you begin to get drawn into the very realistic drama playing out before you. Anyone with a familiarity with true crime documentaries will feel at home with a lot of The Moor, and Claire's documentary she's building with various people from the community talking about the kidnappings brings to mind multiple real life examples. You almost start to forget that the film is billed as a horror movie, and it settles much more comfortably into the realm of dark thriller.
It's perhaps this that makes the more overt horror hit a lot harder, as up to that moment things feel much more grounded in reality, and it's inclusion feels like a sudden shocking inclusion that makes those moments hit much harder. The latter half of the film leans into this much heavier, and the last half hour is particularly unsettling to the degree where you both want to see more and also want to look away from the screen in equal measure.
One of the biggest ways that director Chris Cronin does this is with atmosphere. The moors are almost like a character in the film. They're a looming presence in the background at the beginning, mentioned multiple times and built up into an almost mythical quality. The first time that Claire steps out onto it it's something that she has to build herself up to do, standing on the edge of the road, psyching herself up to take that final step and actually touch the moors. It's an innocuous thing, yet it feels like a big moment, something filled with tension that will dictate the path the rest of the film will have to take.
The visuals of the moors are also incredibly striking, wreathed in mist, home to strange stones and monoliths, and odd sheep that appear in the distance, there's nothing about it that's overtly wrong, yet every second the film spends on them the moors gets under your skin and makes you feel like it's trying to do something to you. The atmosphere in these scenes is phenomenal, especially towards the end of the film, and it left me wishing we'd have had a lot more of it; even though the film was already rather long for a horror movie at two hours. The film gives you just enough information, enough hints, that you can come away with an idea of what happens without ever being told outright. It's the kind of horror where not knowing for sure is part of the fright, as it feels unknowable, ancient, and powerful, something that you can never hope to understand for real.
But it's not just the locations that grabs the audience, as the central cast deliver stand out performances across the board. La Porter is a young woman running from the guilt and trauma of her past, having blamed herself for Danny being taken. And you can see that, you can see the unease and guilt behind her eyes throughout the film as she feels obligated to try and do something to make up for her past mistakes. She has to overcome the fear of going onto the moors, of taking that step into the unknown and the frightening in order to move on with her past trauma. It's a subtle yet deep performance that goes across as somewhat dethatched and aloof at first, but makes complete sense when you understand her motivations.
David Edward-Robertson is almost the exact opposite, and Bill makes all of his feelings known. He's a man so worn down with loss and grief that he doesn't care about hiding it anymore. He doesn't care what people think, because why should their opinions matter when he's trying to bring his lost son home? Most of the scenes he's in Edward-Robertson is playing the character as either openly angry, full of regret, or barely holding it together. It's a wonderful depiction of grief and loss that has played out over decades, wearing him down day after day. There are multiple scenes in the film where any other time you'd be calling him an arsehole for his words and actions, yet you understand why he's like this, and can see the pain he's going through, and you end up feeling a lot of pity for him.
The supporting cast are decent too, with Mark Peachey and Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips making an interesting father daughter combo. Both of them bring the more unusual and supernatural into the film, yet manage to make their characters feel incredibly grounded. Unlike some films where the psychic medium character can derail things somewhat, feeling a little over-the-top or ridiculous for the tone, these two play the role well, especially the young Dormer-Phillips, who has perhaps the more difficult scenes in the film to pull off. I also can't finish without mentioning Bernard Hill, who sadly passed away last month. Whilst his appearance in the film is brief, playing a retired police officer, his scenes are important ones, ones that bring new context to the film and push Claire's narrative forward. It's a shame there wasn't more room for him in the film, but what we do have of his is great.
The Moor is a wonderfully dark and brooding movie, one that isn't afraid to take its time and let tension build. With some fantastic performances and some truly creepy moments, it's the kind of horror that gets under your skin and leaves you wanting more; even if you're not completely sure what you've just seen.
The Moor is released in cinema 14th June in the UK, with digital download available 1st July.
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