Horror tends to be a genre that sticks to the present day for the most part. Horror writers often want to say something, and use horror as a way of highlighting issues in the world around them, just look at how many essays have been created about the evolving social commentary in the George A. Romero zombie films for an example of how a surface level simple horror can say so much more. As such, the only times you tend to get historical horror films is when a pre-existing work is being adapted, such as Dracula, and the works of Lovecraft and Poe. Truly original horror set in the distant past are a rarity; and often tend to be some of the more original horror films I've come across. Thine Ears Shall Bleed definitely falls into this category.
Thine Ears Shall Bleed introduces us to the Thatcher family, Reverend Ezekiel (Andrew Hovelson), his wife Sarah (Hannah Caball), his son Luke (Duke Huston), and daughter Abigail (Lea Zawada), who are travelling through the American West during the 1860's. Set within an isolated landscape, the family are travelling in their single wagon, looking for a place where they can establish a new church, one where Ezekiel can finally have his new organ, make sweet music, and spread the world of god to his new flock. The family reach a crossroads up in the mountain, and their choice of path leads them to a strange part of the forest, one with bizarre sounds in the distance.
When they lose their horses during their first night in the forest Ezekiel sets out to try and find them, following the strange noises. He eventually comes to a cliff edge, one that shows the full beauty and majesty of their surroundings. Assaulted by a noise so intense that is causes his ears to bleed, Ezekiel is convinced that he's heard the voice of God, and that this is where he is supposed to build his new church. As the family are blessed with miracles, such as Luke gaining his sight for the first time in his life, and terrors, such as the frightening visitations in the middle of the night, the family must decide if they are indeed being blessed by God, or haunted by a much darker force.
The plot of Thine Ears Shall Bleed is fiendishly simple, a small family trapped in a remote location with strange things happening to them. It's a very common story archetype yet Ben Bigelow, debut director and co-writer alongside William Bigelow, manages to inject enough originality to keep the film from feeling dull or unoriginal. The setting also helps a lot with this. As mentioned previously, it's rare to get horror in this time period and place, and the beautiful, remote locations used for filming are both gorgeous, and hauntingly isolated that even the daytime scenes with nothing overtly frightening happening leave a sense of unease within the viewer.
This is perhaps the best way to describe the horror that the film uses the most too, unease. There are moments of more overt horror, and even violence and gore to be found her, especially towards the final act of the film, but for the most part it's the rising tension that takes centre stage. The ever increasing manic belief that builds within Ezekiel, seeing him leaving his family to sit on the clifftop transcribing the 'word of God', forgoing cares like how they'll find food, or the injuries his children suffer puts you on edge as you begin to wonder when he'll finally snap. The madness that creeps over Ezekiel is hard to watch, as it's both part religious belief and part outside influence, and you begin to question where the line between madness and faith is drawn, and how little this force had to nudge him in order to push him over the edge. Hovelson is fantastic in the role, going from kindly father to madman so slowly that it's hard to pick out the point where it happened. He has an intensity about him that's surprising based on the early scenes, and it's great to see him play through a whole range during the film.
The rest of the cast are decent too, with Caball doing a great job as the wife trying her hardest to keep her family together as the voice of reason. Her desperation feels genuine, and she seems to be the only sensible voice amongst all of them, the only one who does the smart thing of questioning the divinity of the bizarre events going on around them straight away. Lucas Near-Verbrugghe makes a surprise addition to the initial cast as a botanist stranded in the same twisting forest as the Thatcher family, and you have a hard time trying to figure out exactly who he is. His performance is very guarded, and you're not sure if he believes as Ezekiel does, whether he's agreeing with the man for fear of what Ezekiel's reaction would be otherwise, or if he sees the same 'miracles' around him. He shifts around a lot, being a figure of sympathy, interest, and worry more than once, and he plays the role well. He's an X factor thrown into the movie at the mid point that helps to keep the audience on their toes.
Thine Ears Shall Bleed has some interesting ideas, it tries some new things, and it doesn't feel beholden to the tropes and conventions of the genre. Much of the movie plays out in the bright daylight, in the beauty of nature, it plays around with time and space and becomes almost dream-like at times, and at times it doesn't even feel like a horror film. There are some fantastic moments where you feel like the rug has been pulled out from under you as you figure out what's really going on, and you become so engrossed in the mystery and the story of the Thatcher family that you want to keep watching. The performances are very strong, particularly from a largely unknown cast.
As someone who loves seeing horror stories in less common settings, particularly historical ones, Thine Ears Shall Bleed felt like an absolute treat. In a world of slasher movies and modern day haunted house films it's fantastic to find something that stands out like this, that isn't afraid to try something new and to be bold in its difference. I hope we see more films like this.
No comments:
Post a Comment