by Jesse Miller
MoreHorror.com
ALTAR, the new horror film written and directed by Nick Willing, starts off strongly as it introduces the location, the lavish house and characters all via some gorgeous cinematography and sweeping shots of the moors.
From there on, strange things begin to occur. It starts off with a rattling window, then continues with ghostly apparitions that haunt the kind family.
It’s all very slow-burning stuff and rather effective, with director Nick Willing making good use of lighting and sound design to capture the atmosphere and conjure scares.
The whole film looks, feels and plays out as like a good old-fashioned haunting flick similar to The Amityville Horror.
The main problem with this feature is, aside from some strokes of genius that provide genuinely creepy moment’s, this is one horror that is mostly derivative of what has come before.
The key problem here is the story that loses its way in the last act of the film. Plot threads are left dangling and unresolved and themes of love and art that run throughout are sadly undeveloped. It’s a shame when the film started so strongly.
This is not to say it’s entirely a bad film, per se. The production on the display is superb and the cast of actors – particularly Olivia Williams, Matthew Modine and Antonia Clarke – breathe life into their roles and sell every line – it’s just disappointing because this is something we’ve seen done before and a tad more effectively.
What it comes down to is this: ALTAR is unfortunately lacking in surprises and scares and though the story starts off strongly enough, the more the film’s mystery unwinds, the more I started to realize it’s stock standard horror fare. Save it for a rainy night on the weekend but don’t expect much out of it.
SOURCE: More Horror – Read entire story here.