Tags:
Film: Canvas
Year: 2021
Director: Ryan Guiterman
Writer: Ryan Guiterman
Starring: Steve Key, Isabel Ellison and Ell Peck
Review:
Now this is a movie that I got the chance to check out thanks to Seda Temurci. They sent me the screener and I knew coming in that this was an animated horror film. Just knowing that and that it has been making its festival rounds, I was intrigued to check it out. Other than that, I came in blind aside from just the blurb I read in the e-mail.
Synopsis: when a demon known as ‘The Painter’ (voiced by Ell Peck) comes to Earth, FBI agent George Rohan (voiced by Steve Key) finds himself tasked with covering up The Painter’s multiplying murders. Meanwhile a journalist, Reila Martin (voiced by Isabel Ellison) works to unveil his growing web of lies.
We start this with voice-over narration from The Painter who describes itself as a god-like entity. It first worked for Eloheim and then for Morning Star. I did a quick search for the former and this is the grammatically plural noun for ‘gods’ or ‘deities’ or similar words in Biblical Hebrew. I’m taking that Eloheim is God. I then think that the latter is the Devil. The Painter grew restless with creating lifeless art. It wanted the power back to create life and instead was banished to wander.
The movie then gives us a couple title cards stating that in 2007 that are countless unsolved murders happening across the world. At every scene is a mural painted in the victims’ blood. The press dub these crimes ‘The Painter Murders’. Then in 2010, there are millions of ‘Painter Murders’ around the world. The United States forms the Painter Defense Agency with their mission being to uncover the cause and prevent further murders.
This is then told in two parts and then an annex. This first part we follow George, who is an agent working for the PDA. It was thought that a cult was committing the murders. What this agency does instead though is cover up the murders, giving another reason for them to prevent panic. I thought this was an interesting idea as it falls in line with the conspiracy theory that the government covers up things. I’m also getting the vibe this is an allegory for what happened with deaths during the pandemic as well. This also leads to the second part since George’s daughter is feeding info to her friend who is a reporting.
That is when we shift to her story and follow Reila. We get a glimpse into her life and how following this case is causing her relationship to fall apart. Her partner thinks that she is lying. There are also other interviews that we see as well as Reila being given directions to get to the bottom of what is happening here. What she discovers isn’t what she is expecting as The Painter goes even farther.
I think that is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the story. Where I’ll start is that this doesn’t have the most coherent narrative. Many of our characters aren’t introduced and if they are, I missed it. I’ll be honest though. This is more about the visuals. I do believe that I got lost in that and missed things. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy this though. There is an interesting concept here and the religion that is explored has me intrigued.
Let me then talk about filmmaking. I get the feeling that we have real actors being the basis of characters. It almost feels like that they acted out the scenes and then this was animated over top of it. Think of something like A Scanner Darkly. Now I’ve never seen that, but I know that it has real actors and then just animated. There is a surreal feel that comes with it. By doing this, it creates a nightmare feel to everything as well. That worked for me. One that stuck with me was Reila following the instructions she was given. There are great transitions there. We also get a scene with her washing her hands and the basin looks like it has changed to melting. Her hands look like that too. The visuals they use throughout are great.
I think then I’ll shift over to acting. It is hard to credit them. The voice work here fits. Like I said, I do think they acted out the scenes and then everything is distorted through the animation. I would be intrigued to give this a rewatch now that the initial watch has had where I can focus on other things. I’d say that everyone fits for what was needed. Special credit to the leads of Key as George, Ellison as Reila and Peck as The Painter. The latter speaks in a foreign language and it is distorted. That made it even more eerie.
The last bits here are going to be a hodge podge. I love the distrust of the government as that feels real. Having a demon doing these killings and this agency having no idea or how to make sense of anyone of it is terrifying. The annex is great as it feels like the Book of Revelations is playing out. We aren’t seeing the different parts, but just that two characters are ‘saved’ while The Painter wreaks havoc. Other than that, the soundtrack also fits for what was needed thanks to the different actors.
In conclusion, this is a hard film to talk about. I’d call this an arthouse venture. The visuals that we get here are great. It is interesting taking these actors, having them act out the scenes and then distort everything through animation. There is an interesting story, but I do think that it got lost. I do wonder if the initial shock of seeing having worn off and doing a rewatch would help there. Regardless, I love what I saw on the screen. It is both haunting and beautiful. Not one that I can recommend to everyone though. I do want to revisit this now that I have watched it.
My Rating: 6.5 out of 10