2015 Directed by Joseph Sims-Dennett
In the grip of grief following the death of his young son, his marriage on the rocks and nearing bankruptcy, Parker reluctantly returns to work as a private investigator. Embarking on an unusual assignment to observe a woman from an abandoned apartment, Parker witnesses bizarre happenings surrounding her, unaware that the derelict building that he surveys her from has birthed a dark presence which slowly threatens to consume him.
Lindsay Farris Joseph Sims-Dennett Josh Zammit Alice Collins Clare Collins Rodrigo Vidal-Dawson Stephanie King
Canada
Fantasia Film Festival
UK15
London Film Festival
Australia
USAPG-13
Australia
Canada
UK
USA
“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.”
― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
Observance fascinates me. It infuses elements of noir, horror and science fiction to create a metaphor about the effects of grief.
The primary influence which most will pick up on quickly is undoubtedly Rear Window, but where that film explores more in the American Paranoia psyche, Observance focuses our "peeping tom of sort's" as someone trying to stave off sadness.
He watches, and reports, watches, reports, and gets into a cycle of self damage that is exquisitely rendered through muted-color cinematography and a heavy focus on palette matching locations.
It's hard to fully discuss this one because part of the fun is not…
No idea what was going on but at least the movie looks good.
Movie Cocktail Choice:
🍹 Black Martini
Atmospheric as hell and quite a bit confusing horror about a man who takes a job observing a woman across the street, still grieving over the loss of his young son. Strange things start to happen of course, mysterious sounds/voices and black slime, with a little added bodyhorror before it all ends quite confusingly in a barrage of fairly straightforward shocks that almost felt like they didn't really belong in this movie, especially since the focus was on dread atmosphere up until then. I will admit that it was late and I wasn't paying full attention so I'm pretty sure I will have to revisit it soon, it felt like I missed a lot of small details that were the glue to maybe piecing some of the puzzle rogether.
I'm not really sure that Observance makes sense. Granted, I am the last person in the world who should be watching a film that requires effort from the viewer--I don't really have the ability to "connect the dots" on deeper meanings and the relationship of ideas within a scattered narrative. So I probably shouldn't have watched this film in the first place.
And yet, after staring at my blank document for about 20 minutes trying to figure out what to write for this damned film, I've decided that I got everything that could honestly be expected for me to get. Maybe there is more to the film, but if so the breadcrumb trail for the viewer was too jumbled to…
The director is the star here. If you're a fan of Lynch, early Polanski and I dare say some Elias Merhige give it a go. If you like the work of those directors then you can have a good one with this although is not an easy film to view. It's a film that requires your attention in every frame. I was kind of lost watching it and somehow I was cool with it. And that's weird for me, I get mad when I feel like a dumbbell figuring shit out during a movie I'm not understanding. A surveillance job, sickness, dread, paranoia, wiggly things, voices, weird dreams, black slime, decay, this job sucks! Liked it.
keeping this on my watchlist even though there are like 4 reviews for it here and one of them at the top ruins the entire movie without any warning. Why can't people on this site use spoilers? So just FYI avoid that Mitchell person's review unless you want to know how this movie ends
Hmm. I mean… it is intriguing. The story isn’t terribly linear. Which I normally love. I guess I’m basing most of my rating on the ending of the film.
haha no! That's not how movies work! This is what David Lynch and his hateful ineptitude have wrought: a generation of awful moviebros who think that a bunch of weird images with no connective tissue can function as a movie.
This film is totally in my wheelhouse! Rear Window mashed together with some Jacobs Ladder and you get this tippy little film from Australia. This one is definately getting a rewatch but I really had a great time with this one. Its a one man show for the majority of the runtime until the film makes a pov shift and decides to really screw with you. This one gets 3.5/5 stars!
This movie is only 83 minutes long but felt like it took 3 hours to finish. Extremely slow paced. It was trying to be peculiar with the whole possession aspect of the film but the way it was executed just didn’t work for me, I found my self bored rather than entertained. The ending wasn’t very satisfying also…
