By Simon Thompson
Director Ben Bigelow’s Thine Ears Shall Bleed is a brooding and atmospheric piece of horror, which, in spite of both some impressive acting in places and some luminously beautiful cinematography, struggles to get out of the starting gate. This is a shame because both Ben Bigelow and the movie’s co-writer William Bigelow clearly understand how to build atmosphere and tension effectively, but like a striker with great movement and yet no finishing ability, they can’t quite seem to find the net.
Set in 1860s America, the plot of Thine Ears Shall Bleed follows the Thatcher family, led by patriarch Ezekiel ( Andrew Hovelson), a reverend undergoing a dangerous wagon journey into the Dakota woods to set up his own church in the next settlement over. Accompanying Ezekiel, is his wife Sarah ( Hannah Cabell), and children Abigail and Luke (Lea Zawada and Duke Huston). Their journey begins to go catastrophically wrong, when Ezekiel hears a mysterious noise in the woods which he believes to be the voice of God, but actually is something far more sinister, driving Ezekiel into fevered madness.
Credit is due where credit is due, both Bigelows seem to understand the time-honoured tenets of what makes a good horror movie; an isolated rural location, a monster or malicious entity whose intentions are ambiguous until the end of the narrative, the slow descent into madness etc. All the tried and tested tropes are present and correct here, it’s just that the films sloth-like pacing means they take their sweet time to be established, with the narrative stakes being raised at about the same pace as it takes to reach a customer services department via phone.
Shot in the woods of Darby, Montana, the cinematography in Thine Ears Shall Bleed is an absolute pleasure to look at. Cinematographer Chris Cavanaugh does a superb job of bringing out the beauty of the movie’s Montana location, managing to balancing the stark emptiness of the woods with the bright hues of the surrounding bushes, streams, trees, and sky. The use of close ups in the scenes charting Ezekiel’s descent into insanity also demonstrate a deft touch, as it allows the audience to fully appreciate visually the ordeal that he and his family are undergoing and the toll that its taking on them.
I would describe the acting in Thine Ears Shall Bleed as largely solid, with Hannah Cabell’s performance as Sarah Thatcher being especially praiseworthy. Cabell expertly encompasses the character’s motherly and religious devotion, her fear, and her drive to survive being lost, all with an understated stoicism and sense of dignity. It’s these qualities in Cabell’s performance that stop the character being a cliched long suffering spouse, adding a necessary sense of narrative pathos in the process.
To conclude, Thine Ears Shall Bleed is a well-directed, yet poorly paced and predictable effort, that meanders along its way in the pursuit of building a menacing ambience. Ben and William Bigelow are clearly aware of what makes a horror movie work, it’s just that they are in dire need of some kind of story-structure shaman who can help them with their shortcomings in that department.
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