X Moor

After receiving a tip off, two documentary film makers Georgia and Matt set out to photograph a wild beast and earn themselves £25,000. The famed creature has been seen prowling around X Moor and with the help of Georgia's friend and wild animal hunting expert Fox they cant go wrong. Fox guides them to the suspected location of the beast but as they venture deeper things begin to take a rather unexpected turn. They stumble across the bodies of many young women who have been tied up and left in the woods to die. This leads them to a single conclusion, this isn't the lair of the beast its the lair of a serial killer. They set a bunch of cameras up and wait for his return.

X Moor is a film by which British horror can be a little proud, as it tries to subvert and redefine genre. It can also be just as much a little annoyed, as the film fails on many counts to get it right. The film had a strong central idea and in honesty, I was drawn to it because of this. I went with hopes of something and came out with very positive, although mixed feelings. These feelings came about in part due to the way the film is so schizophrenic. The first half is weak, has 1 dimensional characters and is dull. The second half reverses all of this and sustains suspense, has great characters and is very thrilling. Let me illustrate a point to support this. Matt just cracks extremely unfunny jokes constantly in the first half and as soon as things start happening becomes human and has range. Georgia is the same she starts the film like tidal driftwood, wet and wooden but at the end is literally Ripley from Aliens.

There are other problems too. Visually for instance where the interiors at the start are shot like a romance, all soft and warm with little care. Then we get to the exteriors on X moor, which are shot amazingly and are filled with dread and foreboding. These two opposites sit uncomfortably with the viewer. Where often this device is used to transpose the safe and warm with the harshness of an environment, here it doesn’t work as both seem cold under the cinematography. It has dull stereotypes (kids in the sticks are bored and feral/ Drug addict woman are violent sociopaths) but then has real pathos at the end, with true feelings and emotions with children. All in all the first 20 minutes of the moor beast, the awful documentary guys and the mentally damaged Fox creates the overwhelming feeling of blah… you even find yourself distracted by it. I dreamed up a whole alternative movie where Fox killed off the leads and then set about hunting down all the previous cast members as revenge. (Now I wonder if after reading this, will you feel the same and want a Fox back story film?)

However, when we go to the search on the moor it is very obvious that the whole mood has changed. The gear has moved up and in turn this has helped the story along. With this change comes characters with life, fresh ideas are added to the piece and this shakes you and wakes you up. Everything suddenly is underpinned with a sinister and unsettling air that made me jump and almost taste the air of dread. The faster pacing, injected power into the action and the performances became truly frantic. Space started to close in and then it totally comes together. The director should take a lot of credit for this. He added to this mix, small touches that rounded the film. The child in the car (Which will haunt you), the bodies with the glass eyes and limp limbs and the when we have the isolated tent and cameras it works a treat. These made it work more than anything else. The film suddenly had body and a frame and you could see it coming together. You knew the context of why what was happening was and cared about it.

So, for me to bring it all together after all that. X Moor is a film that is worth your hard earned cash. It starts poorly and could have sunk without a trace but whether through luck or skill went somewhere. Where it goes is worth following, the cameras, the killings, the scary woods all worked for me. I am excited to see the directors next piece to find out if he is to be applauded or blamed for this.