Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: THE CELLAR [SxSW Film 2022 - Virtual]
The motivations of perception and a darker truth by sheer coincidence is part of the fire that fuels "The Cellar"[Midnighters]. While most of the revelations are simply results of plot progressions, the actual structure of the film is fairly solid despite a narrow corridor through which the actors can move. Elisha Cuthbert returns to the screen as Keira, a career woman who moves with her family to an old Irish house in the middle of the country. The reasoning for this shift is never quite clear but seemingly it is about moving upwards in life. She and her husband (played by "La Brea" actor Eoin Macken) seemingly build branding and influencers by design. While that superstructure doesn't seem to inform the bigger story, the texture of the house does work. While inherently a haunted house motif, the reasoning and how it builds in terms of quantum physics and history is actually quite ingeniously explained though not as visually acute as it could.
The cinematography and some of the perspectives are nicely done without resorting to gore and extreme measures and yet the dread still works. Cuthbert comes off more as an investigator than a mom during most points but that gives the film an edge it wouldn't otherwise have. Her motivation is primal though the connection is not as strong as it could have been though it does work for the progression of the story. As different details emerge either on a cipher or Victrola within the house, the mythology does build...and that is what makes the film intriguing. When it finally crescendos, the bridge is done in a very unique yet practical way using the rest of what the film has explained as both a neat metaphor but also with a gotcha element that is still primarily satisfying. While the film in conclusion is not overly complex, it creates its universe with aplomb while mining some of the effective motifs of films that have come before without resorting to expected scare tactics that sometimes take away from what a film is capable of. B
By Tim Wassberg
