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Directed by Mans Marlind, Bjorn Stein. Starring Julianne Moore, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Frances Conroy, Jeffrey De Munn. Horror / Thriller. 112 mins. USA

DVD / Blu-Ray Release Date : August 2nd 2010 £17.99 (Certificate 15)

London born screenwriter Michael Cooney has his place secured in cinema history by virtue of a single scene in JACK FROST (not the Michael Keaton one, you sadists!) that involves Shannon Elizabeth being discreetly molested in the bathtub by a melted snowman possessed by an executed serial killer. He followed it with a less pervy sequel but now, on occasion, gets his scripts made into relatively high profile mainstream movies with prominent Hollywood stars. Cooney is fond of tricksy psychological horror stories with twist endings, as demonstrated by THE I INSIDE - overshadowed by the similar THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT at the time of its release - and the underrated IDENTITY, a schizophrenic post-modern take on the slasher movie format.

The elegantly directed SHELTER - which had just a token UK cinema release but may find a decent sized audience on the small screen - is his latest movie and it cleverly uses an IDENTITY-like extreme case of multi-personality disorder as a first-hour McGuffin before the truth is outed. Somewhat indebted to the Hideo Nakata-influenced J-Horror cycle (it’s no coincidence that the movie shares a producer with THE RING remake and came out in Japan first), it’s a beguiling and intelligent movie that has its share of flaws - but somehow ends up looking more impressive in a movie year overrun with useless remakes, cynically conceived sequels and redundant retro-fitted 3-D.

Julianne Moore is effortlessly good as a sympathetic forensic psychiatrist whose investigative role in the narrative is a familiar but nicely underplayed one. While wrestling with her own back-story issues (including the murder of her husband three years ago and a young daughter who has lost her faith as a result), Moore is approached by her father (Jeffrey De Munn, winner of this year’s Larry David Look-alike Contest) to meet a patient named Adam (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). The unpredictable, threatening Adam frequently segues into a meek, paraplegic alter-ego named David, apparently derived from a much publicised 80’s Satanic murder victim, but, as more personalities emerge, the truth proves far more bizarre than it first appears.

Establishing a creepy ambience from the get-go, SHELTER admittedly gets more overwrought and fantastical as it goes along. It sometimes falls back on conventional shock tactics : barely discernible figures rushing past the camera, abrupt LOUD audio stings designed to make us jump. And the plot relies on a succession of Basil Exposition-type supporting characters whose only function is to move the story along to the next stage ; SIX FEET UNDER’s wonderful Frances Conroy has the best of these as a haunted, still-grieving mother.

Your appreciation of SHELTER will thus depend on how much you go along with a narrative that winds up involving devil-worshipping mountain witches, literal soul-sucking and the 1918 influenza epidemic…but if you go with it and forgive its occasional longeurs, there’s a lot more pleasure and quality to be derived here than, for instance, from the all-too-recent, faith-destroying ELM STREET remake.

Swedish co-directors Marlind and Stein help mute some of the more melodramatic excesses and effectively use fleeting moments of physical horror (with down-played make-up FX by KNB and a refreshing lack of intrusive CG nasties). Linus Sandgren’s chilly, ornate visuals are perfectly accompanied by an evocative John Frizzell score, and, like the best occult chillers, it’s played with commitment from all concerned. The excellent Moore aside, Rhys-Meyers, seizing an actor’s dream of a part, turns in a multi-layered showcase performance that keeps the movie centred right up to its genuinely eerie, resonant final scene.

Steven West

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