Etheria 2021 Film Festival Capsule Reviews [Part Two]

Jans Holstrom |

Jun 28, 2021

If you didn’t know, Etheria Film Festival is a festival that showcases the directorial work of female filmmakers. All of the movies reviewed below, and also ones reviewedas part one of the capsule reviews – written by the unbeatable Tyler Doupe – can be watched on Shudder now. Between June 25th and July 25th, all of these wonderful films are there to watch on Shudder.

The picks I made run the gamut from straight slasher to cerebral horror. They are probably the best film festival entries I’ve watched this year. Never mind the fact that this is the first film festival I’m covering. Without further ado, let’s get into the reviews.

Kelsey Bolig’s The Fourth Wall is and amazing start to Etheria for me. An actress, Chloe, grows increasingly frustrated by her castmates on a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She contends with a lead who only got the part through nepotism, and a perpetually lecherous leading man.

This is all compounded by her cocaine habit, coupled with another actress who feels like Chloe isn’t cut out for theater. The whole affair is neon-soaked and intense. A driving soundtrack moves us from place to place while Chloe tries to wrangle all of her castmates, even though it isn’t her job.

It all ends in a cacophony of violence and blood. The ending surprised as much as delighted. It’s truly great piece of film. It’s kind of like a much darker version of Birdman. Jet black humor persists throughout, and by the time the curtain drops – figuratively – you’ll be grinning and grimacing in equal parts.

Narrow by Anna Chazelle brings Etheria a post-apocalypse unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The world has been forced onto a narrow track of ash. You must remain on the ash. Any deviation from the narrow path has disastrous results. The film follows a lone woman who walks along this precarious path.

She rummages through a home that looks like it could be lived in. In fact, someone might be there. The camera work is wonderful. Small, discrete horrors play out in the margins, or so fast you second guess yourself. An attempt to get a can of food slightly off the path becomes a harrowing story of survival. I didn’t know what would happen if she left the path; I just knew she shouldn’t.

Eventually, back on the path the woman runs across someone she knows…who isn’t on the path. He begins promising a return to normalcy if she’d only leave the path. The sequence that follows will be running through my head for a good few days.

In Who Goes There, director Astrid Thorvaldsen provides Etheria with one of the most beautifully shot movies I’ve seen all year. The shots are either scenic vistas, showcasing an almost dreamy frontier landscape. The other shots are all close. They provide an intimate closeness that allows the movie room to breathe without the need for extraneous dialogue. The middle space isn’t played in; this is a game of vistas or visages.

Two sisters in 1880 Minnesota are taking care of their third sister, who is deathly ill. There is very little dialogue. The actors put across their feelings through their actions and their looks. It’s the highest form of talent to sell a whole mood just through a casual glance, and Who Goes There nails it. One day, a strange man arrives on their farm, dying of thirst.

One sister helps him, and he reveals he’s a doctor. There is something far more deadly spreading through the farm than tuberculosis, as the sisters soon find out. The shocking finale will leave you hoping for a feature length version of this horror western story. My favorite short of Etheria.