Feed the Light

Director - Henrik Moller (The Shadow Within Me, The Pigfucker's Village)
Starring - Lina Sunden (Suck!, Beck), Martin Jirhamm (The Cancer Dog, They Wanted to be Newshunter), and Jenny Lampa (Dead on Arrival, Gangster)
Release Date - 2014
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Protect your eyes.  It gets into your head"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Here we are.  Halfway through October and the urge to dive deep into my Halloween themed films is about to consume me.  I've put off watching Halloween flicks all this month and so far so good.  I wanted to watch something brooding and atmospheric after watching The House on Cuckoo Lane.  I took a look over my review pile and decided to go with the Swedish film Feed the Light which is based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft.  The film was directed by Henrik Moller who has made a name for himself in the horror community with his shorts.  This 2014 film was recently released by the folks over at Intervision.  They were kind enough to send a review copy my way.  Thanks guys!

     The film follows Sara (Sunden) who takes a job as a janitor at a mysterious facility.  She took the job so she can secretly search for her missing daughter that she lost the custody to.  The facility is mysterious with little known about it and is occupied by some weird characters.  She is accompanied on her journey through the facility by another custodian who promises to help her find her daughter and survive her encounter with the "pests."

     I'm a fan of Lovecraft.  I'm far from an expert when it comes to his work and adaptations of his writings but I have read my fair share of his work and I've seen several films based on his work.  I wasn't expecting a perfect film but Feed the Light just wasn't for me.  I really liked the look of the film but the story was one of the slowest developing I have ever seen.  The film reminded me a lot of a silent film.  It has a beautiful look and cinematography but the story needed heavily editing.  It took a lot out of me physically and mentally just to finish it.  The acting in this one is decent.  It's really hard to judge this when the cast is speaking a language you are not familiar with.  Their reactions were genuine and honest for the most part but most of the film is spent watching the entire cast act surprised.  The story for this one is difficult to follow.  In fact, I'm not a hundred percent sure that I actually know what was going on.  For the most part the film follows a woman searching for her child in a strange facility while encountering strange people and shadow creatures was interesting but the scenes dragged on for far too long.  The film would have been far more effective as a short but is stretched out with scenes that should not be there.  Overall, Feed the Light just wasn't for me.  I liked the look of the film but the delivery was just all wrong.  After some serious editing it could be a fun film but the way it is it is a chore to finish.