A young boy’s struggles not only with childhood experience, but also the increasing trauma of his biological mother’s deterioration and separation from his dad, coupled with the new stepmother figure in his life, is the template for a few more shocks in the new supernatural yarn FATHER OF FLIES.

Michael (Keaton Tetlow) has not come to terms with his father Richard (Nicholas Tucci) having an increasing attachment to stepmother Coral (Camilla Rutherford), whilst his elder sister Donna (Page Ruth) is increasingly in conflict as your average adolescent with biological mother Linda (Sandra Andreis) sent away to deal with her own issues.

However when Linda turns up unannounced and is denied the chance to see their children, Linda resorts to desperate measures, deciding to attempt to kill herself with fumes from the car exhaust with the windows closed. Six months later, the trauma has clearly not gone away for Michael, with all manner of pesky illusions and visions creeping into his psyche, but the house also seems to pay host to a few more dark and dastardly spirits determined to undermine the boy’s confidence and development further…..

Brit writer/director Ben Charles-Edwards taps us right back into vintage haunted trauma horror in the realm of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, the 1982 original version of POLTERGEIST (one or two unsettling clown images will tell you so here!!) , THE SHINING and Fred Walton’s original WHEN A STRANGER CALLS with a superior jump-feast that hits all the right spots and shocks when required.

Tetlow embodies the same kind of troubled child syndrome that made Danny Lloyd a horror icon in Kubrick’s 1980 classic, backed up by solid performances from the main cast who invest some of the best performances in a horror film of recent years. It’s a movie that relies on – and succeeds with – suggestion.

Throughout horror history, the most beneficial and profitable horror stories are built around a theme surrounding family (think FRIDAY THE 13TH, HALLOWEEN, POLTERGEIST, PSYCHO, THE OMEN, and ROSEMARY’S BABY) and FATHER OF FLIES continues the legacy here solidly.

 

Paris International Film Festival News: Cannes Film Festival 2021 News

The Paris International Film Festival 2022 runs online until 20th February, 2022.

Tickets and info:

https://www.parisintlfest.com/

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