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★★★
Written & Directed by #RichardJMoir
Prolific, award-winning filmmaker Richard J Moir is the real artist behind the lens of In The Moonlight, a familiar yet atmospheric and spooky short film which is a virtual one-man show. The equally versatile James Sobol Kelly is ideally cast and, along with cinematographer Nicholas Peel, the trio execute an unsurprising but overall effective supernatural drama with some genuinely unsettling moments.
In a vast, ornate countryside manor, an artist named Arthur (Kelly) works on the portrait of an indistinct, faceless woman. Slowly, he soon finds himself stalked by supernatural forces within and around his home, seemingly triggered by his discovery of a gold bracelet in a nearby field. Returning to his craft, Arthur becomes increasingly sabotaged by the sinister intrusions, pushing him to breaking point.
In The Moonlight certainly has a striking beginning. A section of Schubert’s setting of the Stabat Mater heralds out imposingly during the opening credits, played out against a jet-black screen. We cut to a long shot of a large, opulent living room. On an easel, stands the featureless image of a grey-haired woman; clearly a work in progress. To the left, a ghostly veil of penetrating blue-tinted light and a gleam of sunlight streak across the floor to illuminate the darkness. It’s an intriguing, mysterious and wonderfully ominous opening.
As the film continues, we follow the solitary figure of Arthur through his day-to-day life during and in-between his time spent painting. Gradually, odd occurrences begin. A peculiar bump from upstairs, which Arthur initially attributes to his cat. An obscure, dark figure appearing in the near distance. An inexplicable crash from somewhere inside the home and eerie, unearthly whispers of his name. Moir’s contiguity of the habitual setting of Arthur’s daily life with the increasing extramundane intrusions clearly echo Jonathan Miller’s classic 1968 version of Whistle and I’ll Come to You - most notably with Arthur’s retrieval of the bracelet and the appearance of the strange watching figure which is an almost direct retread of the plot of the latter. There’s even a dream sequence akin to Miller’s film, pinpointing the character’s descent into psychological turmoil. Indeed, Moir seems to be consciously, at points, evoking both Miller’s original and its 2005 remake with John Hurt (particularly at the film’s climax). The parallels are certainly interesting and, as a homage to the two BBC adaptations of M.R. James' ghost story, In The Moonlight certainly works. However, it does mean that we can - perhaps once too often - see (or, at least, get a sense of) what’s coming and one wishes for perhaps some more originality and freshness in the piece as a whole.
Another similarity between Moir's film and its predecessors (which is a strength, however) is its restraint. The inevitable jump shocks are few and far between and, when they do come, they’re deservedly effective. For the most part, Moir - like Miller - is more interested in the suggestion of a supernatural world disrupting his character’s familiarity with his own world, rather than bombarding the viewer with an overload of sensory scares. In fact, Moir departs from a stock clichéd horror-shock ending altogether and, whilst something of an abrupt departure, it at least brings in an unexpected turn before the story’s closure.
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