Rating: C
Dir: József Gallai
Star: Kata Kuna, Bill Oberst Jr., Simon Bamford, József Gallai
This film does a lot of thing right around the edges. Unfortunately, it’s in the service of a core which is largely underwhelming. The urban legend referred to in the title, appears to date back to a mid-nineties piece by Brian Bethel. It has subsequently become a creepypasta, propagating online through forums and social media, though Bethel maintains his experience was real. Atlas Obscura calls them, “death personified as a child,” with the most notable feature – unsurprisingly – eyes with no pupils, irises or sclera, just darkness. If “the eye is the window of the soul”, as Videodrome quoted (attributing it in error to Lorenzo de Medici), encountering them is not going to be a good thing.
There’s not particularly much of an encounter here though. After a spooky and effective montage, audio clips of parents discussing the disappearance of their children, we meet Claire (Kuna), who is just about to leave for a new job as a counselor at a children’s camp. It’s a little odd: all communication regarding the position has been by email. However, it gives her the chance to escape the control of her rather domineering father (Bamford). Her pleasure becomes confusion when she reaches the camp only to find it completely devoid of inhabitants. There are indications, such as a table set for a meal, that people had been there (top). Where they have gone, however, is unknown. Naturally, Claire’s car then refuses to start.
It’s this middle section which is the most problematic, because you are simply watching Claire, attached to her video camera as if it was glued there, wandering around a empty complex of buildings in the woods. Oh, look: there’s a discarded doll. Takes a bit more than that to shiver my timbers. It does put a lot of weight on Kuna’s shoulders, and while her English is decent, it seems a case of acting in a second language, and comes up short. Nowhere is this more apparent, then when she finds a flash drive – conveniently one that fits her own camera – where the owner, Mr. Donahue (Oberst), reveals the camp’s history. It’s a single shot, delivered straight to camera, and is completely engrossing, in the same way Kuna’s performance isn’t.
Oberst and Gallai worked together previously on A Stranger in the Woods. It’s likely no coincidence that more Oberst there, made for a better end product, and I would likely have preferred it had he and Kuna swapped roles. For while this isn’t much over an hour, Claire may outstay her welcome for some viewers. Specifically, Chris eventually pronounced her cinematic death-sentence on the character: “She is irritating me.” After providing more than my monthly quota of slowly creeping around deserted buildings, the movie does offer up something best-described as “resolution adjacent,” and is quite effective down the stretch. Gallai is undeniably good at generating atmosphere by the bucket and on a budget. Providing that’s all you’re after, this is fine. I was left hungry for something a little more substantial.
The film was watched on Screamify.