Although
it was not a smash hit, Rodney Ascher’s scary-as-heck documentary The Nightmare seems to have quite a
legacy, by ushering in a bumper crop of sleep paralysis-shadow people horror
movies. This is one of the better ones, because it has some new angles all its
own. What starts as a science experiment takes on some truly sinister implications
in Chris Mul’s Astral (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in targeted cities.
Alex
Harmann’s lecturer, Gareth Powell is sort of to blame. When he starts talking
about dimensions greater than our own, it gets the moody Royal Holloway,
University of London student thinking (for once). The notions that we might
pass across to a higher dimension when we die and astral projection might be a
way to communicate with the dead particularly fascinates the twentynothing. Powell
strenuously cautions him against the practice and then gives him tips on how it
might be done.
Harmann
still grieves for his late mother years after her death. In fact, it is a
rather sore point, because his father only just revealed the suicidal circumstances
of her death. Thanks to the super-helpful Powell, Harmann manages to astrally
project, but he doesn’t get very far into the 5th Dimension or
whatever. However, he starts to see ominous shadow people soon thereafter. When
his doubting flat mates also start glimpsing the flickering shadow entities, he
knows he has a problem.
Despite
the down-market look of the U.S. one-sheet, Astral
is a rather smart and compelling marriage of mysterious scientific inquiry
and demonic horror. In terms of tone, a decent comparison would be the original
Flatliners, especially given the
collegiate setting (RHUL’s Founder’s Building is indeed enormously cinematic). Eventually,
it goes full-bore into horror, but it is a smooth and logical transition. Mul
keeps the tension steadily mounting, even though some of the woo-woo entity
effects are a little cheesy. You can sort of think of it as a cousin to the various
sequels to Edwin Abbott’s Flatland,
but with demons and night terrors.
The
greatest drawback is lead actor Frank Dillane, who comes across like a churlish,
charisma-challenged drip as Harmann. It is utterly impossible to understand
what the torch-carrying Alyssa Hodge sees in him, particularly since Vanessa Grasse
portrays her as a rather intelligent and forceful young person. However, Trevor
White and Juliet Howland add a lot of entertaining horror movie color as Powell
and the third act medium, Michelle Collins, respectively.
This
is definitely an over-achieving film, which is always a happy surprise. It
should put Chris Mul and co-screenwriter Michael Mul on the map. Astral is a good film that will leave
genre fans curious to see what they do next. Recommended with enthusiasm, Astral releases this Friday (11/23) in select
theaters and on VOD.
