Soho Horror Film Festival 2024 Coverage
Delicate Arch review
A reality bending trip into the desert. Guys…stay out of the desert.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Delicate Arch
Directed by Matthew Warren
Written by Matthew Warren
Starring William Leon, Kelley Mack, Kevin Bohleber, Rene Leech and Katie Self
Delicate Arch Review
The desert is second only to the woods on a list of locations you don’t want to find yourself in a horror movie. Don’t go to the desert, guys. There’s never been something good in the desert. The Outwaters…The Buildout…and not Delicate Arch. Three recent films that make this point very clear. The Hills Have Eyes should have ended this discussion nearly fifty years ago! But here we are again. With another group of young people who think it’s a good idea to travel into the desert. What could go wrong? With Delicate Arch, it turns out…the answer is almost literally anything.
Grant (William Leon), his friend Cody (Kevin Bohleber), his ex-girlfriend Wilda (Kelley Mack) and her cousin Ferg (Rene Leech) head into the desert to escape a climate change induced inversion. Grant immediately senses all manner of strangeness surrounding them. Visions and actions that bend reality around him. And, perhaps, for those of us watching. A mind-bending, reality-shaking experience awaits in the desert.
Delicate Arch begins with an unrelated character. He is alone…and his actions are being narrated by a disembodied voice. That man eventually lights himself on fire. It’s a heck of a way to open a story. Especially when the narrator isn’t even a part of the main plot (save for a brief return). It’s jarring…as it is intended to be. Without explaining why things are happening…the opening scene of Delicate Arch tells us that the normal rules of storytelling do not apply here.
This theme is followed up early in the group’s trip. They sit around a campfire openly questioning the nature of their reality. Even suggesting that they could be characters in a horror film. Yes, Delicate Arch gets very meta. But not in the way you would expect. The low hanging fruit would be to tell the story of self-aware characters who find themselves inside of the movie that we are watching. Delicate Arch has something more complicated in mind.
Given the nature of the relationships between the four characters…it should be no surprise that their initial struggles are personal in nature. Grant has had a hard time letting go of Wilda (to say the least) …and suspects her of having moved on to his friend Cody. Cody is obsessed with climate change…something the rest of the group is very tired of hearing him spout off about. Ferg questions everything about reality. Ferg is going to end up proven very right by the time the credits roll.
Writer/director Matthew Warren unleashes a lot of ideas in Delicate Arch. A lot of interesting and unexpected things happen. What’s most impressive is how they combine into one mind-blowing experience. When you see a character notice the aspect ratio of the film you’re watching…and his ability to affect it…all bets are truly off. It’s that kind of meta. The characters aren’t self-aware…they become aware. Not exactly about their roles in our movie…but about the nature of reality itself. Delicate Arch, the film, is just one reality explored. From weird alien puppet things to a zombie outbreak to fourth wall breaks to what I think might have been witnessing a retake of a scene experienced by someone viewing an event through a cell phone recording… Delicate Arch is wildly imaginative.
It’s also gorgeous to look at. While you should absolutely not go into the desert during a horror movie…the open vistas sure do create a beautiful backdrop. Beautiful, that is, when the camera isn’t changing ratios or distorting images or doing some other strange camera trick to make you continually question what in the world is going to happen next. A trippy daymare that defies explanation.
Until Delicate Arch gives us one. Maybe. If you are in desperate need of answers…the movie eventually gives you one. Whether you can trust your own eyes after watching Grant and company view an ever changing and inexplicable story…that’s up to you. I’m not buying it. One needn’t look further than how much Grant trusts his own eyes by the end to decide what is real and what isn’t. Delicate Arch is very real. And it’s very good.
Delicate Arch is a bold, exciting feature directorial debut for Matthew Warren. It is heading to SCREAMBOX in February of 2025. Then you can decide what is real for yourself.
Scare Value
Delicate Arch doesn’t just mess with the characters’ reality…it messes with the reality of the very film we are watching. Not the story…the film. There are a lot of original ideas in this desert. What’s real? What’s happening? The story inevitably chooses to provide a possible answer. As with everything else in Delicate Arch, however…can you trust your own eyes?
