Without Name
Ireland 2016
Written by Garret Shanley
Directed by Lorcan Finnegan
Watched on 06.05.2017

“Without Name” was a nice, old-fashioned scary tale. I especially liked the way Lorcan Finnegan shot the woods; how he played with light, shadow and perspective, and gave it a nightmarish, almost labyrinthian feel. What was also great was the way Finnegan and Shanley, with a couple of (quiet) scenes, established their main character, and gave us an impression of his life (f.e. with the family sitting at the table). Afterwards, when he reached the remote hut, “Without Name” made his sense of isolation palpable. Even when his young colleague joins him, he still seems to be alone. That, and the first half in general, I really liked. Unfortunately, the movie lost some of its appeal after a while (around the first drug-induced-hallucination-scene, I’d say). Before, I was enamored by what was happening, and felt some sort of connection with Eric. But in time, if you will, we grew apart. There were a couple of decisions – like taking even more mushrooms – which I simply couldn’t understand. Thus, the movie started to drag along a little bit. And the ending, even though I liked how mysterious it was and that it offered up room for interpretation, was a little flashy and annoying. It’s still a nice film overall, but after the great first half, I couldn’t help being a little disappointed.
7/10

IMDB