I’m not sure if I can truthfully call this a horror film. I can definitely label it a psychological thriller. And I can definitely label it a brilliant, brilliant movie with a creeping sense of dread that permeates every frame right up to the electrifying conclusion. So to hell with explicit ‘horror’ labels, because this modern American masterpiece is a hell of a lot more scary than Hellraiser.
Curtis LaForche (Michael Shannon) begins to have apocalyptic visions of huge maelstroms, destructive tornadoes, flocks of birds flying in bizarre patterns, oily raindrops that render people insane - he fears for his own sanity and the safety of his wife (Jessica Chastain) and young, hearing impaired child (Tova Stewart). His mother (Kathy Baker) has a history of paranoid schizophrenia, and Curtis struggles with his desire to protect his family from his dreams and save his own mind. We watch his life fall apart as he spends thousands of dollars trying to prepare for the ultimate storm he's sure is coming - losing his job, his insurance, his friends - but no one else seems convinced. As the community begins turning against him, it's just Curtis and his family against a small town, and perhaps the elements too...
I absolutely loved this film. Everything about it, from Michael Shannon's incredibly subtle yet explosive powerhouse performance as a man questioning his reality to the slowly advancing camera that constantly and threateningly inches towards its subjects, absolutely gripped me from start to finish. Indie writer/director Jeff Nichols creates a masterful slow-burn of tension that literally never ends - the film's final sequence (and no spoilers here - it's mind-blowing) is a summation of the film's principle tension that is at once thrilling, heart-breaking and astonishingly epic; I literally get tingles thinking about it now. The music (by David Wingo) has a lovely, string backing that builds up the emotion perfectly with occasional piano led moments in the quieter scenes. Shot on a pretty small $5 million budget, the effects in this film never threaten to steal the focus from the human element, but are perfectly integrated in the aesthetic of the whole piece. For a man in his early 30s, Nichols has much to offer cinema, and I have every faith that he will continue to deliver quality like this for decades to come.
In short, I can't quite recommend this as a pure horror, despite its taut construction and difficult subject matter. However, I can and will recommend this as a brilliant film, and easily one of the best I have seen in the past year. It's masterful film-making and takes viewers on a most brilliant journey into the depths of the human person - 96 out of 100 disorientated starlings.
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