MTI Home Video | Buy at Amazon | Review by Sinferno
Ever wonder what it would be like if you you took Damien from THE OMEN, gave him strange, abused child powers like Samara from THE RING, and had the entire thing take place in the foreign house from THE OTHERS? It would look, kinda, sorta, probably exactly like this and surprisingly, the end product works.
THE SHADOW WITHIN is the story of Maurice Dumont, a poor child who has a nightmarish life. Not only does he have the misfortune to grow up in a castle in war-torn WW2 Italy but his father is killed in the conflict. Complicating matters, Maurice's abusive, insane mother Marie blames him for the death of his twin brother Jaques, during childbirth. She lets him know of her discontent every moment of his life – by making him eat putrid food, destroying his things and cruelly abusing him physically. Of course, Maurice may be innocent, but he is not completely helpless. It turns out he can channel the energies of people from beyond the grave and allow them to communicate with the living who miss them so. Maurice's mother soon discovers her hated son's special ability and forces him to communicate with the nether world, to let her lost, beloved son Jaques know just how much he misses him and wants him to come back. It soon becomes apparent that Jaques misses his mother just as much, but the reunion is perhaps more than Mrs Dumont could have ever bargained for...
This film works. While the blood is kept to a bare minimum and, admittedly, it could could never pass as a horror film, the use of terror and unpleasant imagery is genuinely unnerving and old school. Whenever young Maurice channels the energy of his dead twin he becomes a black eyed, pale-skinned, undead photo negative of himself and an immediate avatar of sadness and savagery. Also, the character of the young Dumont is such a sympathetic character that even the most sympathetic, humanistic viewer desperately wants, needs... yearns to have Jaques make his appearance through Maurice at the end of the film in the slight hope that he might put things right for his brother, through whatever ghastly and ghoulish means possible.
While some of the computer effects of the CGI "shadow phantoms" who bedevil Maurice's every waking moment seem kind of cheap and poorly-rendered, there's enough here to make you generally uneasy before the upbeat, almost inspirational ending.
| Yucko/Neato Factor: This film took the time to gradually, continually and completely freak out the viewer in ways that mere gore never could. Interesting enough to where you didn't stop the DVD but eerie enough where the thought did occasionally cross your mind. Terror-ific! |
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| Production Values: The entire setting of wartime Italy was grim and ghastly, but some of the computer effects seemed like they belonged in a cartoon. Cheap "promotional copy" from MTI as usual. Orchestral soundtrack was classically creepy as only string ensembles can be. |
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| Realism: The accents were all wrong, and the supernatural elements weren't entirely realistic. But it gets some credit for making me want to believe in them, even if only to make things turn out right for a lovable but exquisitely tormented young protagonist. |
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| Value for Price: $24.95? I liked it, but I would have liked it perfectly for $19.95. |
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| Plot: Some extended back story and flashback would have been a blessed thing, but this is by far the best, well thought out movie that MTI has ever seen fit to send me. |
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