LISA
Lord of Tears, written by Sarah Daly and directed by Lawrie Brewster is a gorgeous Gothic ghost story. James Findlay (Euan Douglas) has just been given the news of his mother’s passing and, consequently, full ownership of his childhood home, a mansion set in the Scottish Highlands which he has only vague and scary memories of.
Upon arriving, James meets Eve Turner (Lexy Hulme), a lovely young lady living on the property. They become fast friends and Eve begins helping James uncover the mystery of what happened in this house when he was a boy. Eve looks like she has stepped out of an old movie and has an infectious love of life.
Her hair is always perfect, her lipstick is never smeared, her clothes are impeccable and she’s a breath of fresh air for James. There is a particularly hypnotic scene where Eve does a dance for James that really hi-lights all of these qualities.
Initially, I grew a wee bit tired of this scene; It is gorgeous, but it started to feel lengthy and indulgent. Later on in the story, however, this dance scene made a lot more sense and upon a second and third viewing, I loved it more every time.
Yes, there is a delightful twist in the movie that you can see coming if you pay close attention.
Some of the scenes in the film felt very Lynchian, but I say this in a good way. If you can frame and edit scenes in such a fashion that it looks beautiful, feels unsettling and doesn’t feel overly artistic, more power to you. The glimpses that we get of Owl Man are all sublime. I feel compelled to bring up one tiny complaint with Owl Man, though; until you learn his story, he is extremely reminiscent of the owl mask wearing protagonist in the film Stagefright. There is also a side story involving one of James’ friends that feels tacked on. When the reason for this story is revealed, it still feels mildly unnecessary.
Overall, Lord Of Tears is a beautiful movie, a great story and I loved the feeling of it. The imagery is lovely and Hulme does an extraordinary job of inhabiting her character. Especially in the last fifteen minutes of the film; her looks and movements are the things nightmares are made of. This is one of those rare films that is effectively creepy without resorting to the use of unnecessary gore or f/x. It really is just a little jewel box of a gothic ghost story.
SHAWN
I first came across this movie as a project on kickstarter and I’ve kicked myself for not supporting it ever since.
As Lisa mentioned, this movie takes place in a large dreary mansion in the beautiful Scottish Highlands. I found the interior and exterior settings contrasted each other beautifully.
The interior of the mansion is dark and claustrophobic with old semi decayed furniture.
The exterior, while gloomy features open shots of the countryside. The sky is always threatening rain but during the day the glimmering hope of sunlight remains.
As I’ve not seen Stagefright I can’t really agree or disagree with Lisa about Owlman but I did enjoy the cryptic nature of his character. There is a deep and threatening prose to all of his lines and the costuming is effective in making him more threatening than comical. Any number of minor changes to the character would have rendered him non-threatening and presumably broken any sense of immersion gained by the tense atmosphere.
Overall, I enjoyed Lord of Tears. It’s a beautiful movie that starts off with tension and keeps you guessing for most of its duration. A few times I felt as though I’d picked up on the twist but was happy to be proven wrong.
The physical packaging is probably the most impressive I’ve ever seen for a dvd/bluray release.
Not only is this movie worth a watch it is also worth a buy. Highly recommended