The Canal (2014)

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Subtle, yet ever-so-effective, I had gooseflesh for most of the movie! Wow, this was so good. Wonderful acting, especially from lead Rupert Evans. Interesting twist ending!

The Canal is a rather interesting story about a man and his increasing feelings of inadequacy and jealousy, as he tumbles down a macabre corridor of horrific events. It's a fairly simplistic approach to a rather horrid series of events.Rupert Evans, portrays the central character David. He is at constant conflict with himself throughout this film, whether as a father or lover. I found his emotional capacity rather bland at times, but he did a great job in the first half of the film by showing a man spiraling out of control, as his life unravels around him. His increasing anxiety and jealousy plays a large part of who he is, and evidently is his undoing. He has a lot of screen time, so if you don't like him, you may not enjoy the film itself, but I thought he did a fine job as the main focus of the film. Several others, especially Steve Oram as the tough and experienced homicide detective McNamara, did well in their supporting roles.The Canal is certainly influenced by other films of this genre. I noticed the main plot devices weren't dissimilar to several Japanese films, most notably "Ju-on: The Grudge" (2002) as well as "The Ring" (1998). What I really enjoyed from this film was the use of the camera throughout the movie. There are some fantastic angles that made this film certainly feel creepy. There are moments when you feel absolutely claustrophobic. Even some of the low budget effects (including a scene with David talking to his son via laptop) were still intriguing enough to surprise me at times. Some of the gorier moments of the movie were well thought out, and didn't rely on jump-scares or with bloody reveals. There is even some decent background story in terms of why all of this horror is happening in the first place.I think the most interesting aspect of this film is not the horror itself though. You can watch it as a horror film, and take it for face value, yet I found myself questioning what kind of film I was really watching. David certainly devolves into paranoia by the end of the film, but you have to ask yourself... is this because of an evil influence, or is it because David is completely delusional. This film could be watched twice with either perspective, but I think it's pretty clear by the end of the film what's actually happening. It does have a rather slow pace, but at only an hour and a half it doesn't go on forever. It's a concise film, and it does well for the short screen time it has.6/10

The Shining is a sure inspiration and influence on the story, we have also a married couple with a male child moving into a haunted home where a terrible murder once took place by a husband who killed his cheating wife and kids. David (Evans) gets the same taste of poison when he finds out his wife Claire is cheating on him and then she ends up dead in the canal, supposedly drowned. We get a fair share of psychological horror mixed with bits of a ghost story ala The Ring with some elements of found footage but in this case, David shoots those footages and imagines the ghosts. Subtle direction on Kavanagh's part with creepy and eerie slow zoom ins and just plain fixed shots for an extended time and exquisite compositions layered with nice color schemes of blue, gold, and red and flavored with insane and psychotic violin music. Constrained chills and scares are scattered well throughout the movie until the story goes full throttle towards the end with thrilling scenes especially in the canal where his abhorrent-faced wife Claire covered with mud and sewer stuff all over gives birth and chases David with his son in his arms. The sharp editing and sound editing especially where they are used as transitions between scenes add to a lot of effect to the movie replacing the clichéd sudden jerks and bangs and appearances of certain things that is usually found and incorporated in horror movies.

Heh, I swear... I don't think I've had to wade through SO damn many Bull$hit reviews in all my life. "10 stars!" "MOST BRILLIANT HORROR FILM! GO SEE IT NOW!" "BEST FILM EVER!" Please... Anyway, ultimately I guess I did enjoy the movie; I did give it a '7', which at the beginning, I wasn't even sure whether I even wanted to finish watching it.But, as the story goes on it DOES get better. Without giving anything away, it's interesting how they gave us a surprisingly effective ending (meaning the whole last 'movement', not just the last few minutes) that wasn't your usual cop-out ending that you normally see in these types of films. I really don't want to get more specific than that because I do not wish to ruin it for you. Let's just say that it kind of leans one way and then kind of twists the other way : )I felt that the style was a little off-putting at first, employing techniques making it a BIT too jumpy at times. It could be kind of jarring. I mean, it's not that I cannot appreciate good jump-scares with loud noises if it is done well. But, to me at the very beginning I think they did it a bit too much in conjunction with normal, mundane things. Like when he was just simply loading the film. BUT... thankfully, as the substance and mood of the film began to solidify and build more and more tension, these elements seemed to fit and merge with the overall tone of the movie better, rather than seeming quite as out of place as it had in the beginning. The A/V style kind of struck me as about 65% David Lynch (excellent) and about 35% MTV (not so much) Heh, maybe not quite THAT bad... One thing that I REALLY did like was the haunting, ambient sound throughout much of the film, which is more consistent with the Lynchian mood that I like.The acting overall was fine; the main guy played it with just about the right 'balance' (in a manner of speaking) between uncovering the past evidence and history of what happened with his house and still raising our concern somewhat about his mental state (that is all I'd better say about this, but like I mentioned before, the film doesn't 'cop out' stupidly like others that have similar themes) Without revealing any details, I personally liked the way they resolved the ending; because I think it really gave it a nice 'punch'... One thing I WILL say though is that no matter whether ultimately he was right or wrong, the main policeman was a complete and TOTAL D*ck.For me personally, the A/V style of this film would not be among my very favourites, but trying to view the movie objectively in order to help others determine whether they might enjoy it or not, I feel that overall this film was suspenseful and creepy with an effective ending which added to it's entertainment value. So, maybe for ME it wouldn't quite be a '7', but I think that for people in general it would be a good film (considering that there are SO many really LAME Horror films out there) So, IF you like your Horror movies with strong Psychological undercurrents and you don't mind some Supernatural elements being thrown in, there is a good chance that you may very well enjoy this film.