Rituals and resurrections are the themes of Shudder’s latest original offering, From Black, but how does one go about raising the dead and haven’t we seen this all somewhere before?
Recently bereaved and recovering addict Cora (Anna Camp, playing against type) is plagued with guilt following the disappearance and subsequent murder of her infant son. Found almost catatonic and covered in blood, she recounts how she reached this position to her police officer sister. Attending group grief counselling, she meets Abel (John Ales) who claims to have brought his drowned daughter back to life through a series of rituals to an unknown entity with power over life and death. Cora’s sister doubts her tale, given her history of drug addiction and general bad decision-making, but Cora’s unshakable in her belief that the rituals need to be completed and that something is coming for her. Has an unhinged Able taken advantage of a vulnerable Cora, pushing her to her limits, or is this the real deal and will Cora manage to bring her son back to life? More disturbingly, what does she have to do to make that happen?
There’s an understated tone to From Black. Set firmly in rust belt America, it’s all dust roads and trailer parks with the exception of Cora’s mother’s large abandoned house, the setting for the rituals and memories of Cora’s son, with its empty rooms and faded history. Given we begin with a blood-soaked Cora saying that she “really thought it would work”, some of the air is taken out of her story given the fact that we know it hasn’t worked and at this stage at least she hasn’t managed to return of her dead son. Throughout the film, we see flashes of memories from Cora’s perspective leading up to the rituals themselves, where we linger on each one in an effort to establish them as important to the process of resurrection, this adds to the impending sense of doom and expectant failure as ritual leader Able becomes more unhinged and Cora goes from doubtful to wholly committed when the chance to see her son starts to creep closer. Camp grows in the role as her character does – she makes a good fist of horror which is a departure from other roles such as Pitch Perfect (she has dipped her toe in TV horror before in Creepshow and Tru Blood) but as a leading lady, she’s adequate.
Unfortunately, I think From Black regards itself as scarier than it is. The inclusion of a ‘monster’ and its whispered interaction with the characters actually takes away from the creepiness of the rituals Able makes Cora endure. The rituals themselves are billed as terrifying and intense, each one worse than the other, but in practice don’t appear to be that bad as we sort of breeze through them. It also becomes quite difficult to follow at one point, a character’s purpose for their willing death got very confusing for a bit, but the film gets back on track afterwards. Its conclusion was a bit frustrating, stopping abruptly at a point where I’d actually be really interested to see what happens next. There’s another issue, which is the uncanny similarities to 2016’s British/Irish film A Dark Song, which does almost exactly the same thing this film does, but much, much better. I had to check that this wasn’t just an American version of the same film, the latter not being given a large theatrical release and considering the trans-Atlantic trend to localize entertainment. I couldn’t see any evidence that it was connected, there’s different writers and some semi-significant differences in the script, but apart from that, it’s extremely similar. I suppose if Jason Vorahees and Michael Myers can co-exist, then there’s no reason to question these.
I do respect Shudder’s program of original movies and I’m not going to decry new horror stories being told via our beloved streaming platforms. Especially with it being Thomas Marchese’s debut outside the walled gardens of TV movies and short films. In saying that, not every story is going to break new ground and this one feels like a rehash of very much discovered territory. If you’re in the mood for a ritualistic runaround, do yourself a favour and watch A Dark Song. If you can’t find that on a streaming platform, this one will scratch that itch while you order the DVD.
From Black is coming soon on Shudder
