By Terry Sherwood
In the great tradition of the Robert Wise 1963 film The Haunting, and the oddly categorized children’s story The Pied Piper of Hamelin comes the superbly understated creeping horror from Director Chris Cronin and Writer Paul Thomas’s The Moor (2023). Elements of Folk Horror coupled with the slow paralysis of Life that blame, recrimination and obsession can do to people plus a blend of ghostly trauma of disappearing children.
The film begins in Yorkshire where children Claire (Billie Suggett) and Danny (Dexter Sol Ansell) are friends who in daylight, they decide to steal candy from a corner store. The plan is that Danny will approach the counter and say he’s lost his dad, and while the shopkeeper is distracted, Claire fills her book bag and moves out to the nearby alley to wait for Danny who is to run off. The plans change when Claire doesn’t see Danny return from the shop. The counter says his dad came and took him. Danny has now gone missing.
Local children often disappear in broad daylight walking, playing even in homes. A man IS convicted of one murder however Danny and the other children’s disappearance remains a mystery. Twenty-five years later, as the accused has served time and is preparing to be released from jail, Danny’s father Bill (David Edward-Robertson) makes a renewed effort to look for evidence of Danny’s death. Contacting older now unsuccessful podcaster Claire, (Sophia La Porto) asks her to use her podcast to raise awareness. Claire agrees to help a sensitive-to-spirited person Eleanor (Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips) her assistant/ helper Alex (Mark Peachy) and Ranger enforcement Liz (Vicky Hackett).
The evil of the moors with peat bogs, obscure appearing obelisks in the mist, and silent sheep with no eyes that surround the group in their tent all add to the creeping terror of the growing mystery, The weather can change without warning, and the hikers find themselves in freezing downpours or thick fog from one moment to the next. The mystery deepens things turn ghostly at night all brought to focus and non-focus in brilliant mist-shrouded images. Bill is driven to find his son Danny at all coasts which will prove more apparent as the film moves slowly sometimes a little to slow towards where something dark and evil stirs at their presence and their family secrets.
The Moor (2023) what it is to lose sight of a child you’re responsible for, even pressing the point of the horror today of random violence even when out for a walk with friends. Children in this film still disappeared without a trace. The horror builds throughout, and the film and the creepy ending put the audience in the forefront so much you can taste it. Tension, ghostly happenings, and a lonely tent in a surreal landscape that dwarfs humans in size all add to this subtle yet direct travel package to horror without having to get your boots caught in some peat.
Bloody Flicks 