A grieving widower comes to terms with his sadness and tragedy in the rural island psychological horror SHEPHERD.
Eric Black (Tom Hughes) is really down in his heart after the death of his cheating wife, Rachel (Gaia Weiss) and his troubles are not really going away any time soon. However, perhaps a bit of isolated and quiet on a remote island with a lighthouse and some sheep to take care of might be the solution.
He is taken to the island by a mysterious fisherwoman (Kate Dickie) who refuses to cross a threshold by the lighthouse and provides him with a journal and a few subtle warnings. In the process, he reconnects with his disapproving mother Glenys (Greta Scacchi, in a powerful supporting role), but the island is also providing some major psychological and supernatural challenges as he tries to settle in on his new role…..
Writer-director Russell Owen does well visually in a spectacular filmic experience (the locations are extraordinary thanks to some cracking cinematography by Richard Stoddard) but comes up a little short in the narrative department in a film that taps into the style of films like 1408 and SHUTTER ISLAND. Horror fans will be pretty clued in and have the outcome nailed on early on in a movie that is pretty much of a slow-cooking combo.
The performances overall are good and make the most of the well-trod material here, but it is Scacchi, once the epitomé of the sexually charged woman in films like PRESUMED INNOCENT and WHITE MISCHIEF, who provides a sturdy and gutsy performance as the mother (a welcome sight for those who might have wondered where she has been over the years) and is the stand-out here.
SHEPHERD does seem a little disappointing overall and may short-change horror fans who might have expected something far deeper and involving, but it is what it is.
