The opening shot of "We're Not Safe Here" is captivating: a woman's face covered with a blood-stained pillowcase, and a little girl's voice reassuringly says, "It's okay, Mommy," moments before stabbing her. Is the film about a mother and daughter? Does the spirit of the dead mother still haunt the house? Why did the girl kill her mother? Was she abusive? Or was it a supernatural force that convinced her to do it? A slew of questions will immediately cloud your mind. The title suggested it might be a haunted house story, but it turned out to be something more complex.
Neeta was a talented artist, but lately she had trouble concentrating. She felt anxious and often wondered if she even had the potential to create art. During the day, she taught at a local school, though she looked forward to winter break to take a break. Sarah, her colleague and friend, noticed the tiredness in Neeta's eyes. It was obvious something was bothering her. Sarah had complete faith in Neeta's talent and told her that a person as level-headed as her should never dwell on such thoughts. And she firmly believed that Neeta would soon find a topic captivating enough to help her focus.
Director: Solomon Gray
Writer: Solomon Gray
Stars: Hayley McFarland, Sharmita Bhattacharya, Margaret Wuertz
Neeta hoped so too, but as soon as she stood in front of a canvas, her vision went blank. Frustrated, she ended up stabbing him. Neeta received an unexpected call from her classmate, Rachel. She had been skipping classes for a while, and Neeta was worried about her. She heard the panic in Rachel's voice as she begged her to spare some time to listen to a very difficult situation she had recently experienced. Neeta welcomed her into her home even though it was quite late. What followed was a true nightmare. Neeta patiently listened to Rachel's story only to realize that, in a strange way, she was being drawn into it.
Solomon Gray's debut feature is satisfyingly unhurried. The layers are gradually peeled back, carefully avoiding the usual clichés that define the genre. Dialogue is crucial in the film, as much of the scares are derived from the stories told by the characters. Instead of flashbacks, the director chooses to keep the camera fixed on faces, capturing terror and anxiety up close. The presence of a supernatural force is introduced gradually. At first, it seemed as if the horror was confined to the walls of the house, but as soon as one of the characters stepped outside, the terror began to spread. "We're Not Safe Here" manages to build anticipation, but unfortunately, it doesn't quite deliver. The conversation between Rachel and Neeta, particularly Rachel's narration of her chilling experience, will draw you into the story. But it doesn't lead to much. The anticipation of something extreme happening onscreen drags on for too long. What was initially interesting soon starts to feel too long. Almost an hour into a 90-minute film, and nothing significant has happened yet. Perhaps that would have been acceptable in a drama, but in a horror film, it's excessive buildup. It would have worked if the climax had been exceptionally good, but that's not the case.
Horror films often have open endings; the climax is meant to leave you with certain questions, and the deeper you delve into it, the more intriguing it becomes. "We're not safe here" obscures certain details, and considering that many of the characters' experiences are nightmares or hallucinations, not everything has a logical explanation. This could have resulted in something really interesting, but most of the conclusions reached aren't as profound as you'd hope. It felt like a film with flourishes but very little substance, and that's always very disappointing. The ending isn't difficult to understand, but I would have liked it to have been a little more exciting, perhaps with a well-developed story to tie it all together. What happens in the last thirty minutes of the film is significant to the plot, but not shocking enough to keep you guessing. The bloodstained pillowcase, both visually and for the unsettling feeling it evokes (that of having one's head wrapped in a shroud), was a clever choice as a decorative element in a horror film, but it remained more of a conceptual idea and didn't evolve into something truly shocking. It would have worked if the narrative had been compelling, but the decorative element alone couldn't save the series.
Sharmita Bhattacharya and Hayley McFarland, as Neeta and Rachel (respectively), deliver convincing performances. The film relied on the characters' facial expressions to induce a sense of dread and panic in the audience, and the actors did an excellent job. The storytelling is undoubtedly the film's highlight, and Rachel's (Hayley McFarland) narration of her experience practically underpins the structure of "We're Not Safe Here."
"We're Not Safe Here" is a blend of nuances. The fact that it avoids the usual clichés is certainly worthy of appreciation, but what good is a horror film if it doesn't leave you petrified? The blood-stained pillowcase and all it meant, along with the slow-paced approach at the beginning of the film, is perhaps its only redeeming quality. The background music also deserves a mention; the song "Save Yourself" evokes an eerie atmosphere that sets the mood perfectly. The film will undoubtedly invite you in, but the real question is whether you'll want to stay. In conclusion, We're Not Safe Here is a mediocre horror film that failed to reach its full potential. Other angles could have been explored; the plot lacks depth, and while vagueness works in some instances, in this case it doesn't add much. It simply leaves you with a bunch of unanswered questions and a strange feeling of dissatisfaction.
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