Review: The Shadow Within. By Brian Kirst
“Where are we going?”
“To town. To walk into town like other people do.”
The men are off to war and Marie has shut the door! — After his twin brother is pronounced dead, Maurice is sequestered from the rest of his fellow villagers by his unbalanced mother on their coldly vacant estate. Overcome with grief, mama Marie soon finds herself under the spell of local mystic, Madame Armand, who convinces her to use Maurice to allow the spirits of all the dead and missing children flow through him in her soul searching séances.
Following the lines of Masterpiece Theatre horror, The Shadow Within is both spooky and regal while touching upon issues of emotional abuse and tight gripped neglect. Crisply acted by a cast that includes Beth Winslet (sister o’ Oscar winner Kate) and moodily directed by Silvana Zancolo, The Shadow Within is a film festival winner, marred a bit by the use of ghostly CGI, but otherwise a potent and spooky rainy afternoon time waster for those who like their terror prim and elegant as opposed to gasping and gruesome.
And while there is not much blood flow here, those freaked out by spooky eyed children, flu epidemics and deaths in drafty churches might find a little tingle of terror or two here and there, as well.
I am going to review this one later today. I have turned this one off twice 'cause of the slow pacing. European films have a very different style from North American ones. I hope this pic' improves in the finale, so far = so-so.