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Film: The Moor
Year: 2023
Director: Chris Cronin
Writer: Paul Thomas
Starring: Sophia La Porta, David Edward-Robertson and Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips
Review:
This is a film popped on to my radar thanks to Keir from Strike Media. I personally got confused at first, because I was invited to the screening in the theater. If I was in the United Kingdom, I would have gone. I was able to secure the screener to check out instead. Other than that, I just knew that this took place on a moor and was in the horror genre for 2024.
Synopsis: Claire (Sophia La Porta) is approached by the father of her missing childhood friend to help investigate the haunted moor he believes is his son’s final resting place.
We start this in Yorkshire back in 1996. Claire (Billie Suggett) and her friend Danny (Dexter Sol Ansell) go to a local store. Claire wants Danny to create a diversion so she can steal candy. He is reluctant but does it. The plan is to meet in the alley out back. When she goes to flee, a man is in her way. She then goes to the rendezvous spot. Danny never comes out though. Claire takes a chance, goes back inside and asks about her friend. The shopkeeper says the man that came in was his father and took him home.
It is from here that this fills in the backstory through newspaper headlines. There were children disappearing and it put the area in fear. The time jumps 25 years. The man that was thought to be behind it was arrested. Claire is now an adult. Bill (David Edward-Robertson) seeks her out. He is the father of Danny. He still hasn’t given up hope of finding out what happened. He asks if Claire will talk about it on her podcast. She tells him that she doesn’t think it will help, but he convinces her that it will.
She also helps him by going to search the moor where he believes the boy disappeared. These are treacherous. They have a guide, Liz (Vicki Hackett). Bill is also seeking the aid of Alex (Mark Peachey). He uses divining crystals to decide where to search. Interestingly, Alex’s daughter is more powerful with her psychic abilities. Bill goes behind her father’s back to get her to help. Her name is Eleanor (Eliabeth Dormer-Phillips).
I’ll also say here that Claire interviews different people, which helps fill in backstory as well. There is Ashad (Duggal Ram) and Becky (Mia Vore), who grew up in that era as well. They tell of their experiences. Thornley (Bernard Hill) is also interviewed. He seems like a local expert. He helped with the investigation. It is through him that the size of his moor is truly seen.
That alone would make things terrifying. There are supernatural elements in play and Bill will put the lives of this group at risk to find the truth of what happened to Danny.
I think that is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I’ll start here by saying that this runs just shy of two hours. I left plot points due to not wanting to spoil things. What I’ll say here though, I do think that there is a good amount that could be trimmed. This feels like someone’s passion project and there were things that they didn’t want to cut. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate this. I just wanted to set this up.
Where I want to start is that I like how we build fear here. It starts with someone kidnapping children. This is every parent’s nightmare. The use of newspaper headlines and hearing people tell their stories of that time was good. Something that adds to it is to show the mental state of Bill. He still struggles with what happened. This is something that would be extremely difficult to deal with. I’m not sure if I could move on without knowing what happened to my child. His determination borders on mania. I thought that Edward-Robetson was good at conveying this.
Then I want to shift over to our lead, Claire. She is interesting to me. I like this opening sequence when we go to the present time. Bill guilts her into doing podcast episodes about what happened that fateful day with Danny. He also wants her to recap their investigation to see if it opens new leads. This is a good set up, because she blames herself for what happened. She was able to move on after Bill let her know all those years ago that it wasn’t her fault. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t blame her or that she at least thinks that is the case. I like that she knows what Bill is doing is wrong. She should try to talk him out of it. She doesn’t though and that affects people in the end. La Porta was also solid in her performance.
Something that I thought also worked is that we ground this story to start. It just seems like there was this psycho kidnapping children and killing them. There are people who’ve done this so we connect that. Claire first glimpses that Bill is working with Alex. This escalates when Ellie is brought into the picture. I’ll be vague here, but there are archaeologists that come to this place because there are these stones on the moor that have neolithic carvings. It is also disorienting out there. It makes you wonder for a good stretch if it is supernatural before going there. That’s where it gets creepy. I do appreciate incorporating in lore like this.
Let me then finish out with acting. I thought that Dormer-Phillips was good as this young psychic. Her father is shielding her, but she wants to help. She seems to be in control. That is until things get to be too much. This is something that adds to the atmosphere. I like Peachey as her father. He is between a rock and a hard place, which was good. I like Hill as this expert. The rest of the cast rounded this out for what was needed to push our characters to where they end up.
All that is left then is filmmaking. What I’ll say here is that the cinematography is good. I love how they shot and framed the moors. There’s an added creepy factor with the fog. They are vast so you can easily get lost. Not to mention there are just ravines and bogs so if you’re not careful, you can get stranded and hurt. I’d also say that the limited effects we get are fine for what was needed. There are a couple of sequences here. The sound design was also good. I did have a negative. This runs too long. My interest waned as it feels like there is too much filler. The ending is great and the atmosphere it builds is as well, but the tension was missing at times. I was confused as well from one thing that we saw and to how things play out don’t line up for me, which is a bummer.
In conclusion, I do think that we get a solid film here. I like this idea of a serial killer taking children and how it is believed where he took them was this moor. That is a great setting. It is vast, treacherous and disorienting. I thought that the acting was solid. La Porta, Edward-Robertson and Dormer-Phillips leading the way. The rest of the cast push them to where they end up. The filmmaking is good with cinematography, framing and sound design. I like what they did with the effects. The problem was that this ran too long and I lost interest at times. I think if trimming this to an hour and half, it runs smoother for sure. I’d still say give this one a watch if you want a dark, brooding slow burn with an interesting ending.
My Rating: 6.5 out of 10