Sorcery

 

Feature length film from Christopher Murray

Based upon actual 19th century witchcraft trials in Chile, Sorcery features a stunning lead performance from Valentina Veliz Caileo, a young girl using the title of the film to avenge her father's brutal death.

A wonderful premise of a film featuring enigmatic mystery and a key lead performance from a young adult, there is so much potential for this film to succeed and yet it fails to land unfortunately.

The use of landscape as a mystery to itself does not evoke the required atmosphere - long moments of quiet elicit feelings of monotony instead of haunting. 

When the trailer was issued of this title, it was sold as a forebearer and successor to Pan's Labyrinth - a mythical parable where a young girl must overcome the adversity of the German settlers amidst the Chilean landscape maintaining the truth to herself in her quest to avenge her father's passing. And yet when the moments of action come not as a shock to the system but a welcome change from moments of stillness that instead of offering moments of resonance instead make for an unwanted plodding to proceedings. 

Imagine all the council meeting scenes of Killers of the Flower Moon for an hour and a half, when a lot is said and not much done, and you would rather return to the threat and menace put upon the indigenous people to help thrust the momentum of the narrative which stagnates and treads water when it should be flourishing.

The intention is there but it just fails to match expectations of the trailer, and that is a shame as there are so many elements to make a great statement here on the Chilean spirit. However, the end product is lacking that one element of the spell to be magical.

Sorcery is distributed by Sovereign Distribution and on limited release from Friday 14th June