By David Dent
The impressively named Conscian Morgan’s debut feature starts off as it definitely doesn’t mean to go on: Felix (Ryan Ralph Gerrard) a criminal (and estranged father), mixed up with some bad people, makes his escape by diving into the back seat of a car, driven by mum Katarina (Katherine Deevy) and her silent daughter Eva (Darcey Wood). Holding Eva at knife point, he demands that Katarina drive him to Chepstow, but the fraught setup causes her to crash the car.
The three then set out on foot, mother and daughter hostage to Felix, but Katarina’s initial confidence that she can guide them on foot to town fails when they become hopelessly lost. Happening on a cabin in the woods, a hoped for rescue point becomes the start of a nightmare for all three.
Ok if you’ve seen a handful of genre films you’ll know how this one ends, and I’m guessing that Morgan knows you know, because Binding Eva isn’t about the arrival; it’s about the journey. Specifically Mum, daughter and criminal’s journey through the forest, with night turning to day and back again, a trip which feels increasingly divorced from reality. I’m not sure I needed some of the more obvious folk horror elements – goats, skulls and a presiding witch figure included – but the changing relationship of Felix and Katarina, a superb performance from Wood as 7 year old Eva, and a growing sense of unease and regret raised this one above standard lost in the woods fare.
Bloody Flicks 