Shadows on the Wall

Nocebo

dir Lorcan Finnegan
scr Garret Shanley
prd Brunella Cocchiglia, Emily Leo
with Eva Green, Mark Strong, Chai Fonacier, Billie Gadsdon, Cathy Belton
release US 4.Nov.22,
UK 9.Dec.22
22/Ireland 1h36

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An ominous chill creeps up on the audience while watching this dramatic horror from Ireland. Skilfully directed by Lorcan Finnegan to wrestle with the characters' psychological messiness and supernatural nuttiness, virtually every scene bristles with a sense of dread, often boiling over into something seriously nasty. The plot itself remains a little sketchy, but that only forces the viewer to lean in more closely before the movie pounces.

While overseeing a catwalk show of her kids' fashions, Christine (Green) gets a phone call that rattles her to the core. Still disoriented months later, she can't remember hiring Filipina assistant Diana (Fonacier), but it seems like a good idea with a big new contract demanding her time. Her husband Felix (Strong) finds Diana disturbing, and it takes awhile for their daughter Bobs (Gadsdon) to warm to this strangely ominous young woman. But her bag of folkloric remedies work miracles for Christine. And by the time Diana's true motivation becomes clear, it's far too late.

The opposite of a placebo, a nocebo is a harmless drug that can have a negative effect. Of course, shady interlopers make terrific movie characters, and Diana has just the right mix of helpful smiles and malevolent glances. She also seems to be somehow linked to freaky visions Christine is having about a mangy, tick-ridden dog. And she also seems able to speak to the family's pet canary Big Bird. Effects work is a skilful combination of puppetry, stop-motion and digital work, creating enjoyably B-movie moments throughout this slick and boldly colourful movie. And because it's gleefully yucky, there's also plenty of guilty-pleasure fun.

Even as situation becomes outrageously bonkers, the actors manage to keep their characters grounded, which adds another layer of sinister interest. At the centre, Green's Christine is a juddering wreck, barely holding things together when this stranger offers unexpected healing. Her interaction with Fonacier's superbly harmless-but-terrifying Diana is played with all kinds of ripples, hinting at the things that these very different women have in common. Strong is solid as a worried husband who finds himself outside their creepy circle.

Shanley's script drops in so many hints about where this is heading that, by the time the big revelations begin to emerge, there isn't anything we haven't figured out already. Even as this approach weakens the shocking truth, it punches up the story's wider social ramifications, which have an important topicality (and would be a spoiler to reveal here). So while this is ultimately a rather standard revenge tale, the magical realist twist makes it unforgettable.

themes, language, violence 12.Oct.22

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