Debuting in the UK
June 14, 2024
Available for Digital Download Beginning July 1, 2024.
When there’s a movie simply titled The Moor, it’s tough to not use a certain set of adjectives to describe why I find this film effectively creepy. This thriller from the creative team of Chris Cronin and Paul Thomas plays around with local folklore, and the supernatural mystery feels like it’s culled from a time before the Celts landed in the island before it became known as Britain.
In this tale’s case, this biome is the grave of many lost children. During the opening credits, everything that audiences are afraid of hearing is recounted in fast succession. There was a killer prowling around. After getting caught, he didn’t volunteer any further information. To find all those bodies would’ve taken time and I’m sure nobody wanted that job. But for those parents who need closure, they’re still in mourning.
And for Claire (Sophia La Porta), she thought she got past everything that had happened long ago. When she and Doug were mischievous kids, the plan to shoplift went upside down. He didn’t show up afterwards, and when she went to the shop and the owner said his dad took him away, she was shocked. He disappeared for good and she never forgave herself for not being there for him .
Flash forward some twenty-something years later, much of that terrible incident seems forgotten until she gets a reminder. The killer is due to be let free, and Bill (David Edward Robertson) asks Claire to help find the remains of his son. The hope is that the revelation of this tragedy is enough to keep this individual behind the bars for longer.
But in what they find through the help of a psychic Alex (Mark Peachey) and his equally gifted daughter Eleanor (Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips) suggests there’s more afoot than The Hound of the Baskerville. There are strange monuments strewn about! What’s proposed is that they exist to protect the secrets that lay underground. With that in mind, I knew what’s coming! Once the words, “ritual sacrifice,” were said, I figured what’s buried is something worse. I had visions of Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist in my mind, especially when Diane Freeling fell into the half finished pool and skeletons came popping out! That kind of terror would make me soil my pants.
In what makes this film creepy is the sound design. It kept me on edge for nearly half the film, and to watch it on a chilly night with the windows open is probably not the best thing.
Also, when I’m fascinated with various archaeological studies which also include the Lindow Man, I knew what was coming–well, sort of. Any drowned body trapped in a muddy state is creepy to look at. And as for being able to examine corpses in that state, I imagine pathologists have a way to emotionally distance themselves from what’s in front of them without feeling empathetic. It’s tough to stay composed.
Some characters can stay cool, but when it comes to hearing that distant cry of some predator, it’d set a chill down my spine for sure! To see director Cronin put these characters into this world and build on that sense of unease even got me feeling the cool air rush to my face. While I can say I’m immune to experiencing ghostly shenanigans during a paranormal investigation, I will never want to venture into a mausoleum located in a rustic countryside lest a ghoul suddenly appear.
But when Bill is hard-nosed, just wanting to be reunited with his son, just whatever pact he’s made with the spirits must be revealed. The last act delivers everything I would want; and as for whether Claire can live for another day, that’d be saying too much. It’s best be prepared for what goes on as this work offers the best of what Blair Witch did in cinema without using the found footage format to tell the story.
4 Stars out of 5
The Moor Movie Trailer
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