Lair

Frightfest is definitely a must-see festival for all genre film enthusiasts. This festival allows you to discover the best of world genre cinema with some nice surprises but also some disappointments. Certainly the film Lair written and directed by Adam Ethan Crow (The conversation (2018)) is a horrific thriller particularly well crafted that contains some particularly well disturbing scenes to maintain all our attention during almost all its duration. The result proves to be particularly original as well to go from a disturbing serial killer movie (excellent introductory scene worthy of the best slashers) to a pure demonic possession movie with its share of well bleeding scenes that should delight all horror movie enthusiasts.

Dr. Steven Caramore is an expert in the occult and has dedicated his life to finding evidence of these demonic forces and studying them. He makes a living debunking claims of possession and the supernatural with his Haitian confidante, Ola is then forced to question his own beliefs. When one of his colleagues, Ben Dollarhyde, is accused of murder and claims that he was possessed by an evil force, he decides to study this force, which some call the Black Madonna and which is linked to a cursed statuette. To complete his research, he decides to rent the apartment of his deceased father to a blended family. This family will not only serve as guinea pigs for Dr. Steven Caramore, but will also be forced to face its demons, metaphorically and literally. 

It is necessary to recognize a certain know-how to the director Adam Ethan Crow to maximize the effects of his film in spite of a budget that one feels really reduced to the minimum. Far from being able to have enough means to propose numerous special effects in his film, he prefers to take care of the framework of the film and to propose perfectly defined characters psychologically. The result is a frightening film in which the forces of darkness are really going to be unleashed and Dr. Steven Caramore, who is rather doubtful about their existence, is really going to review his position and face his worst fears. 

It is interesting to see that this film written and directed by Adam Ethan Crow prefers by far to propose a realistic framework and to bring by some horrific touches some supernatural elements. The result is a film that is not oriented towards fantasy comedy but rather as an analysis of a dysfunctional family composed of two women and their two daughters. The director Adam Ethan Crow knows how to get the best out of his actresses and to propose a film as fascinating as original far from the current American productions. The last minutes of the film are particularly strong and lead to a probable sequel if this film meets its audience.

Lair
Written and directed by Adam Ethan Crow
Produced by Shelley Atkin
Starring Corey Johnson, Oded Fehr, Alexandra Gilbreath, Aislinn De'Ath, Alana Wallace
Music by Mario Grigorov, Steven Schwalbe
Cinematography : Stuart Nicholas White
Edited by Ben Hooton 
Release date : September 4, 2021 (Frightfest)
Running time : 96 minutes

Seen on August 27, 2021 (Frightfest press screener)

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