Like these films, his latest, It Feeds, is also a movie predicated on trauma. Cynthia Winstone (Ashley Greene) is every regular therapist's worst nightmare. Whereas most shrinks have to work with their clients for years to root out the reason/s for their poor mental health, Cynthia, faux shrink, actual clairvoyant, can simply enter her subject's mind and find out what the problem is. As the movie opens Cynthia is wandering around in the subconscious of a troubled patient, A Nightmare on Elm Street style, correctly identifying the source of his psychiatric woes to be an abusive sports coach from his past. Having cleared that little problem up, with the clues she has, Cynthia tips off the local police to investigate the likely suspect; she's right of course.
Cynthia's gifts are both a blessing and a curse; she lives opulently with 17 year old daughter Jordan (Ellie O'Brien), who acts as a kind of PA/triage for her mother's waiting list, so business is obviously blooming. But Cynthia's talents have come at a huge cost; not only is there the constant danger, again Elm Street style, of the psychic world leaking into the real one, but she also fears that Jordan may inherit the same abilities.
The unannounced arrival of a troubled teen, 14-year-old Riley Harris (Shayelin Martin) ruffles the organised life of mum and daughter. Riley, in significant distress and with scars covering both arms, begs for Cynthia's help, but when the psychic glimpses an entity with its sinewy arms around the girl, she feels unable to treat her; a tense situation that's temporarily resolved when Riley's father, Randall (Shawn Ashmore) arrives to take his daughter home. Jordan feels differently to her mother and is determined to track down the girl and offer support, but when she finds Riley she's drawn into a world of demonic possession in which she becomes enmeshed.
On the plus side this is a tensely mounted film with some excellent, if rather draining performances, particularly from Greene, O'Brien and Martin. Family friend Agatha (Juno Rinaldi) is there for some lighter relief but her ditziness feels somewhat out of place here. Top marks for the creature effects too; the entity is genuinely scary and threatening, and Archibald is wise to resist the overuse of jump scares.
However, 'trauma' as a driving force in contemporary horror films - and there are many recent examples - can be a bit of a polarising experience. While I realise that audiences may enjoy the cathartic effects of watching movies which may reflect their own traumas, and are thus keen to engage with stories like this, there's a danger of such films becoming increasingly homogenous. It Feeds spends most of its time in near darkness and there's very little happiness on display from any of the movie's characters. I'm not denying Archibald's ability to create a mood but I do feel that the tendency for the depiction of horror as psychiatry porn is rather reductive.
It Feeds is available on Digital Platforms from 12 May. Distributed by Signature Entertainment.
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