Bleu-Le-Fluff-0969

Director Aislinn Clarke offers a interesting Irish horror folklore with some interesting sophisticated horror choices on the direction, writing and atmosphere throughout. Irish horror folklore isn't discussed much and it's interesting to see how filmmakers are approaching the atmosphere and tone when it comes to Irish folklore.

Placed with beautiful camerawork and sound designs, the atmosphere and setting does apply a good strong presence of the creepy vibe and feel to it. Alongside with a great musical score and a good strong lead performance from Claire Monnelly. Clarke understands the haunting and creepy environment to allow the viewers to get drawn in, and establishing what is happening to make it go under your skin.

Now I do appreciate the new concept of the horror that explores. However, I won't call it masterful since some of the writing could be improved, especially when it came to the familiar structure and character engagement as the characters didn't feel really that interesting nor connectable. And with the concept, it does feel like a concept that has been done a bit too many times.

Overall, it's a solid horror folklore tale.

A24's first family feature film offers a decent throwback to the 80s sci-fi fantasy stories that were created and it's clear the filmmaker has a lot of passion. The colorful background, designs, costumes and the special effects are all wonderful and beautifully designed to capture the atmosphere and tone. Alongside with the layers of the designs of the creatures and the make up. It reminds me a lot of The Neverending Story vibe.

With the musical score being pretty good and the atmosphere, I appreciate the new world concept the filmmaker is able to make as I love to see a new whole world to be made or explored. The performances from the cast are all pretty good and the creature, Ochi, is so cute!

However, what holds the movie back from being good is the writing and structure. The writing offers new concepts and ideas but the cliche approach to how it navigates the scenarios starts to feel uninteresting and doesn't hit the emotional impact. Alongside with the thinly written characters that really made me struggle to connect with their goals or understand their motivations. Kind of a shame since I love the vibe but I did wish the writing was better.

Overall, it's a good movie from children as it is a clear film for family entertainment. A24 recently has been having a weird timeline of movies ever since they opened to make more commerical films.

Ariane Labed's debut feature isn't perfect when it comes to the writing and certain aspect choices, however, it's beautiful camerawork and really bizarre atmosphere really adds up an interesting tale about sisters, mental illness, and the strangeness surrounding the characters themselves.

Labed understands how to approach to tale with the weird themes, tone and direction style. Blending with some goofy, horror-like and dark absurd style that does work. Observing the characters and strange dialogue was pretty interesting, and each were provided with some really good performances from the cast members themselves. Alongside with the musical score, sound designs, and directing.

However, what does hold it back from being perfect is some of the writing elements as despite some good concepts, unfortunately some aspects are a bit cliche which does lead into some familiar roads without surprises. Including with a third act that may leave viewers starving for more than being satisfied.

Nevertheless, I believe Ariane Labed has the talent to make strange stories. I personally believe improve is needed for sure. Still a solid watch.