Without Name (2017)

If you like slow building movies, with a ton of woodland & forest imagery, you're bound to love this. I watched it as the trailer made it seem much more fast paced & shocking than it is, to be honest I was really bored and the only time I had to turn away from the screen was when the flashing images really sped up. The story revolves around a man, in a cottage, who's mistress/coworker joins him and they go to a caravan, take mushrooms, then later he takes a whole bunch of different kinds of mushrooms and essentially becomes a space cadet - i.e. loses his mind. The only way I'd consider watching it again is if I myself am on mushrooms.

This was very creepy thanks to clever photography and sound effects, and genuinely good acting. It is, however, a rather quiet and slow moving film with not much happening apart from the characters' minds playing tricks on them. It turns very weird towards the end. I think the guy who wrote this had too many mushrooms...

I fancied some escapism and had wanted to see this for a while. It looked dark, brooding and potentially a little off the wall. There's a lot of space here, in the frame, in the dialogue, it invites you in. Shot mostly in rural Ireland, Alan McKenna plays the central role, isolated in a simple existence. One of surveying said rural areas. Think forests, old country houses, with creepy books on the shelves, old framed cross-stitch on the walls and a sense of foreboding in the stillness. There's some good thriller tropes and it's a bit Blair Witch without the whining. There's enough bumps, creaks, menacingly eerie gusts of wind to keep you on your toes and more than one occasion that frightened the life out of me. If McKenna does a good job as he slips into his own paranoia and fictional confusion, the real stars are Gavin O'Brien and Neil O'Connor in the sound department, single handedly driving the tension in almost every scene. It's not brilliant and far from perfect, but it sweeps along building nicely and comes to an oddly satisfying end.

I hate to throw "water on the fires of praise" but have to give an honest opinion of this film as I see it.The three previous reviews rave about the artistic nuances and beauty of nature melding with psychological mystery in "without name". I do agree the acting and sound track were good and suites the theme of this film. However, it is a far cry from being a thriller/Horror film and although unique I'm not sure what genre this film fits in to.I found the film boating and purposeless. There were some nice lighting shots and shadowy artistic scenes but that does not a good film make.Without Windows is a journey of a man (and woman) working to survey land for a mysterious man. Mush of the plot is never explained or resolved. I know this is offered up as an attempt at an artistic naturalistic mystery, but, IMO, falls short in being anything other then 70+ minutes of trees, trees and more trees. All of the additional story line and narrative seems to convolute any meaning and purpose. Again, there are some merits to this film in way of the use of lighting and score, but, the movie moves at a snails pace and builds to a rather anti climactic ending. I was left wondering what message did this film have to convey.To each his own. I felt the viewing of this movie was as interesting as watching grass grow.