Tuesday 5 November 2013

Review - Delivery (2013 - Dir. Brian Netto)



Delivery tries to do something very difficult: be a slow-burner where the slow burn lasts for the entire film. It takes a masterpiece to pull that off (The Wicker Man, for instance). This also has the disadvantage that it's a found footage style film, a genre I'm not incredibly enamoured by.



Things start off okay with Laurel and Danny expecting a new baby. In true reality TV style they agree to a crew coming in to film the whole beautiful process. The first part of the film is the pilot for the programme. At the end of the pilot, an element of doubt creeps into the proceedings. Eventually Laurel suspects that she's giving birth to a demon. The rest of the film is edited from supposedly unaired footage.



The director was very brave to go for an ambiguous approach. It's never spelt out whether the demon is real or if it's all in Laurel's head, which sounds interesting enough. Where it falls flat is the way that this leads to virtually zero scares (I say virtually because there is one cracker that comes towards the end). Tension is built up at times and I was thinking that they were going to milk it for all that it's worth, but then it cuts to another shot and the tension is completely lost. The drama - carried by natural performances from the two main characters - wasn't enough to carry the film and it needed a bit of something extra.



Similar in style to Lake Mungo but not a patch on it. It's a film that has the spectre of Paranormal Activity hanging over it and the expectations that that entails. Points for trying something different, but it didn't work for me.
3/10
evlkeith

If you like this you could also try:
Lake Mungo.



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