By David Dent
The rise in short filmmaking has seen a similar increase in ‘portmanteau’ films, many which settle on gathering, often randomly, a set of premade shorts and knitting them together with a link story which sadly is often little more than an afterthought.
This is why a delight that Lore, although also a portmanteau film, comprises short tales scripted and filmed specifically for, and as part of this feature.
Four intrepid thrill seekers (Miles Mitchell, Dean Bone, Sally Collett and Samantha Neale) head out to the country in search of an advertised ‘once in a lifetime’ immersive experience which turns out to be just them, their tents and an organiser named Darwin (Richard Brake, Barbarian). The camping area, they are told, was the site of a mass grave and the location of an ancient evil, and the four are encouraged to each tell a story as a means of establishing contact with the forces in the soil.
The four tales, two straight, two comedic, owe a consistency of look and feel to being lensed by the same photographer, Scott Coulter, which makes the veritable cinematic silk purse out of what is probably a very low budget. In ‘Shadows’ a guy fleeing from a gang demanding money ends up in a disused warehouse, empty save for a skulking monster; in ‘The Hidden Woman’ a mother and her young son take on more than they bargained for when they settle in to their late relative’s house; ‘Cross Your Heart’ has an obnoxious husband setting up a swingers party, the outcome of which he would never have predicted; and in ‘The Key Chain Man’ a disgruntled cinema employee embarks on a orgy of violence at a sparsely attended midnight screening.
Directors James Bushe Patrick, Michael Ryder and Greig Johnson know the ‘lore’ (sorry) of the portmanteau film; keep it light, tight, and moving. Only ‘The Hidden Woman’ is genuinely creepy but all the segments are well put together, occasionally gory (the first and last stories) and, importantly, don’t outstay their welcome. The link story is a little messy but the end coda, suggesting that story telling is a never ending process, works well. Good stuff.
Lore screens as part of Frightfest 2023.
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