Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: EIGHT FOR SILVER [Sundance Film Festival 2021 - Virtual]

The texture of revenge is a classical structure in most fairy tales but also voyages of moral compass. Usually the essence of genre allows a perception into this life. With "Eight For Silver" [Premieres], the context is relative to a curse which itself is born out of a sense of selfishness. The idea of conservatism in a period setting is what the mid-1800s and before were all about...pretending everything is fine with a sense of normalcy whereas internally everything is coming apart. Like Van Helsing, Boyd Halbrook's character in a way is stirred by a consequence of his past. As a pathologist in a time where people did not know about such things, he tracks cause which leads him to an estate where something unknown is killing everyone. But the reasoning and the way it is shown (in a brutal way in a prologue of sorts) show who is at fault ultimately for the bloodshed. Director Sean Ellis peppers those early scenes with a brutality and sense of dread that is both foreboding and done cinematically in a way that has residual impact. The interspacing of dreams also ultimately plays a part too but is the transition scene (with all the kids in front of a scarecrow per se) that really paints what the film is about. After that scene, much of the film is about consequence and, although good, doesn't have the raw power of those earlier scenes. The progression, even to the end, is effective in that way though in some ways a certain sacrifice is inevitable (especially in classical or even general story structure). The bookends want to give a sense of a larger world for later stories but it almost would have worked better without them leaving the film as a simple cautionary tale with a short quote perhaps at the beginning about the falabity of man. Sean Ellis, who wrote the film as well but also acted as the cinematographer, captures the scenes in day and night with a ghostly countenance seemingly using a lot of natural light and candles (a nod to Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon"). While the framing mechanisms are not overt, they are indicative of a larger thought process. One shot above a village is a wonderful use of choice which has more power than a close up with a music swirl could ever have. "Eight For Silver" is a story of consequence set against known myth but with a sense of brutality all its own. B

By Tim Wassberg