From Black review.
From Black has some effective ideas…you just have to wait a long time to get to them. It feels like a really good short story stretched over a feature length film…without anything added in.
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From Black
Directed by Thomas Marchese
Written by Jessub Flower and Thomas Marchese
Starring Anna Camp, John Ales, Jennifer Lafleur, Travis Hammer and Ritchie Montgomery
From Black Review
Shudder brings us a slow burn horror movie that is long on slow and short on burn. From Black can be a chore to get through. It focuses on one aspect of its story. Almost as if they cut the first and third acts off. Unfortunately, that’s where most of the fun would have been.
Cora (Anna Camp) is a recovering drug addict overwhelmed with the sadness and regret of losing her son. When a man from her support group comes to her with a claim that her son can be brought back…she agrees to partake in an ancient ritual. A dangerous psychological journey follows. Is the reward worth the required price?
The best way I can describe From Black is that it feels like someone made Pet Semetary and cut out everything but scenes of the father digging a grave. That’s overstating it…but not by as much as you’d think. The entire first act where we see the relationship between the family? They cut that out of this movie. All of the horror that follows the return of the dead child? They cut that out too. They don’t even give you the return of the cat.
From Black is entirely focused on the ritual to bring back Cora’s son. There’s obviously more going on that that…but it all takes place as filler. There is a framing device set in a police station as Cora tries to explain what led to her detainment. We get pieces of her story as the movie drags along…but it amounts to recovering drug addict with a terrible ex and a long missing son who is presumed dead. Instead of structuring the story to maximize fun…it just exists around the ritual.
The ritual is fine…but the movie desperately asks for more angles that never come. Cora is reticent to believe that her son can be brought back…but an early sign that the ritual is working convinces her to carry through. There is an emotional toll to pay…and eventually a much larger price. We meet Cora after whatever happened in the ritual is complete. She’s covered in blood and despondent. She repeatedly says that she thought it would work. She thought she could bring him back.
From that starting point we watch most of the story in flashback. And we already know that it’s not going to end up the way that Cora hopes. This is a double-edged problem. First…From Black is a painfully slow movie. Second…we know the whole time the ritual isn’t heading towards a satisfying conclusion. Now…without spoiling anything…the movie does have a good ending. You must make it through a lot of plodding and boredom to get there. A trial of your own to overcome.
Camp is good as the grieving, desperate mother. The few other actors in the film are perfectly fine as well. There are some backstory dynamics to the few characters we see. Unfortunately, it’s mostly surface level storytelling. Given Cora’s tragic story…From Black doesn’t give Camp nearly as many interesting things to play as you would assume. Again…we’re only seeing the second act of a movie here.
The ritual itself has some quality moments. A couple of effective horror moments…but for the most part it’s a slow drama. Thankfully it does lead to some fun twists eventually. The third act of From Black works well. It feels like set-up for an act that we never get…but it’s still good. You just feel like there is a very fun 20 minutes that we’re not getting to see. Following the tedious nature of most of the film…it’s a bad feeling. But the ending of From Black is also the best part. At least there’s that.
From Black’s commitment to its otherworldly ritual is admirable. It’s fully fleshed out and well developed. The problem here isn’t the story’s focus on it…it’s failing to do almost anything else. If this entire movie was a forty minute long second act…we’d potentially be looking at a great movie. From Black tries to hide what it’s missing with a non-linear format and some storytelling tricks. It leads to a movie that technically works…but is missing the emotional depth and fun payoff that make decent movies good.
Scare Value
Everything From Black does works. It just doesn’t do enough. Its slow burn feels more like a long wait. Camp does what she can to make everything feel earned. She manages to keep the film on the tracks through its down time. Too much to feel moved in the way that you should be. If you can stick with it for the ride, however, From Black eventually gets where it wants to go.
2.5/5
From Black Link
Streaming on Shudder
From Black Trailer
If you enjoyed this review of From Black, check out Clock or Bury the Bride
