The Reflected Self

The Reflected Self, from writer, director and producer Kelvin Richards, based on his own book of the same name, initially presents itself as a regular ‘isolated cabin’ thriller, when Dion (Jones) and Nia (Boyes) burst through the door of an old cottage, into their new lives. The boxes are barely in through the door before Dion is the subject of some sort of demonic possession, where the requisite long-haired scary lady pops up, with her eyes all glassy, to let us know there’s some malignant presence hanging around. Richards takes all the time in the world to show us round the cottage; lingering in all the rooms, languidly ascending the staircase, lounging in the sunlight from the windows; and it’s something we’d better get used to, as this will be the only location for almost the entirety of the film.

As the narrative moves along a little, we can tell that there’s a lot of love between Dion and Nia, it just not quite clear which form that takes. Eventually we get to realise that Nia is Dion’s sister, and that they’ve shared a tragedy in which they lost their parents to a house fire. They have moved to the cottage to start again, but now the scary lady won’t leave Dion alone, and just who is that woman in the old photograph anyway?

So, with the bare bones of a cabin thriller in place, and everything from The Evil Dead (1981), to The Cabin in the Woods (2011), to The Shining (1980) available for reference, you’d think we’d be getting on with digging up some history and maybe a couple of graves, and start finding out just what’s behind the dark force in the cottage. Not so for The Reflected Self, which then reveals its true face as a psychological thriller, as Dion suffers a break in reality and new character, Aria (Clare) turns up unannounced, looking suspiciously like the scary lady with glassy eyes.

From here on in, The Reflected Self takes its own path and tries to sell you its own story, keeping the characters in more of a grounded reality, and frankly forgetting about the supernatural element altogether. It seems that Richards was intent on making something a little more Lynchian, with characters switching places and names and alternating narratives being thrown at the viewer, however, it is not something that he really succeeds at. The lines between Dion’s realities are kept clear with some nice lighting and beard continuity going on, but there’s nothing in the characters to make us care that they can be fluid in their backgrounds and their motives.

Despite an apparent desire to emulate David Lynch, especially pieces of Mulholland Drive (2001), along with parts of Mr Robot (2015-2019) and Shutter Island (2010), The Reflected Self misses on all counts. There is no drama on the screen to keep us interested and any conflict or drama from the characters is only assumed. Everything is talked about rather than shown, but instead what we do get are long, drawn-out shots that are quiet and slow and dull and grey and don’t know when to finish. Luca Fagagnini simply throwing some chords around to try and deepen the atmosphere doesn’t really help either.

In the end The Reflected Self probably suffered from budget restraints which severely hindered its narrative ability. Understandably the film was all shot in one location, but would it honestly have taken so much to get some imagery of engulfing flames, or a facial memory of Dion’s parents going on? The fact that all we get are the same rooms, many times, slowly, just isn’t enough to satisfy a visual narrative nor a hundred-minute runtime.

In fairness to Kelvin Richards, the story he laid out all makes sense and comes together well towards the end. Knowing how it finishes also allows us to see why certain decisions were made and how certain dialogue was scripted earlier on so that it was in keeping with the overarching narrative. This is all to Richards’ credit, and he should be happy with the story of The Reflected Self, but in transferring it to film perhaps it could have benefited from a more concise telling and a lot more attention to visual style, in order for it to really connect with a viewing audience.