'The Moor' by Chris Cronin Review: A beautifully atmospheric attempt at horror and crime

The Moor appears to be director Chris Cronin's first attempt at a feature length title, but it is the first title in general of his I've ever heard of. And that comes from a review from @jcrodriguez that I happened to stumble across earlier today. I found myself quite interested in the concept, especially given it's an English title and I tend to have a rather negative outlook towards feature films from my homeland. The Moorlands of England have always been some of my favourite aspects of the country though, the beautiful and untouched landscapes that go on for hundreds of miles, untouched rocky and hilly environments that give a great break from the modern horrors of England's current overdevelopment that sees much of the countryside turning into a miniature United States. An environment such as the Moorlands has always been something of English culture to be considered cold and unforgiving. A place where you can't build. Where the winds are strong and the rains are continuous. Tall grass and mossy ground as far as the eye can see. It's a place where you go for an escape from the rest of the nation, where you might find a comfortable spot to set up a tent after a bit of a hike and enjoying that silence around. With how loud and busy much of the English land now is, it serves as a great place for something isolated, something mysterious and riddled with stories aimed at scaring the local children.

An environment that is even void of trees sees like something that would feel unnatural. A place densely coated in a fog from the cold autumn and winter mornings and evenings. The density that has you driving through the unknown on a regular day. It's a perfect environment to set up a story that could hold aspects of true crime and the supernatural, and that's where The Moor comes in with its story. A blend of the two, utilising atmosphere of a natural but otherwise cold and ghostly looking environment to convey the unsettling feeling of being surrounded by what feels like nothing. What does the mind do in such a space? How does the mind address the feeling of emptiness with limited visuals? It roams the possibilities, it questions the safety of not knowing what awaits in the horizon that cannot be seen. It battles with the rationality of simple nature as the human mind feels out of place, vulnerable and suspicious. With anxiety and paranoia comes our greatest instinctual reaction: do we fight or do we escape? The heart races, the panic sets in as direction cannot be found. This is the feeling of The Moor. And Cronin does a decent job at conveying it, but I think it fell flat with the narrative.

Indecision is felt within this story that has a woman looking to her past to discover the outcome of a lost childhood friend that appeared to have been abducted one day from a shop. Speculation surrounded the town with other adductions as people looked to the local Moorlands with various fears of spirits and criminals. An area so void of anything that it would be the perfect location for sinister deeds to unfold. With the father of her friend, the film explores spiritual desperation as a means of trying to figure out what happened to the boy, leading to the fears of the unknown coming into light. Much of the film relies on odd aspects of filmmaking to convey the horrors of roaming through a densely foggy desolate landscape, with small GoPro type cameras attached to their chests, the fear of traversing through the environment in search of answers ranging from lost shoes to strange monoliths that are found in the middle of nowhere. I really loved the first part of the story which felt like it was more grounded and sticking to the true crime aspects of the narrative. The fear of trying to figure out what had happened in the environment, with some similarities to that of Memories of Murder: harsh weather and desperately seeking answers in a variety of empty environments. Ultimately coming back with nothing.

Though it's the more spiritual side of things that feels as if the film loses its strengths. I couldn't find the film to be that interesting once its dives into areas of speculation using psychics that claim to have the ability to speak with the dead and see things others cannot. They take the two into the Moorlands with hints of locations to visit, and it makes the Moorlands feel less scary from the natural and psychological aspects and more from the haunting side of things. Placing ghostly figures and beings into that environment just has it lose some of that strength, the fear of the unknown ahead, the panic of the mind as it toys with itself in attempt to rationalise and understand. It is here that the film shows most strength, where the scares aren't from sudden jumps or moments of generic violins screeching. It comes from the sound of wind. The slushing of wet land with each step. The heavy breathing and lack of visuals. The cinematography really reflected the power of the environment too, utilising the density of fog and creative camera perspectives. We still get limited depth between the characters, the lack of colour where most things are flat. It worked well with the desperation to find anything in that space that could lead to more questions or answers regarding that disappearance. Even the idea of something spiritual works with limitation, providing nothing actually ghostly unfolds.

I think from a technical standpoint it's an incredibly well-made film. I really like the idea of using such a natural environment to convey emotion, not relying on grand locations and perfect lighting setups everywhere. It's a dark, cold film that seems like a strange nightmare. On that front I think it really works, Cronin is definitely good at this side of things. Though the narrative felt indecisive. It felt like it couldn't pick a route to go down and tried to handle both ideas at once, leading to some of that mystery and emotion being lost. For an English title I think it's mostly what I had expected. A cool idea, done with some decent execution, but some novice mistakes on the story side just trimmed a little too much off the top.