The Depths is creative, but flawed

Movie Review

Sep 14

Found footage is one of those horror subgenres where I am always willing to give somebody a chance if they bring something different to the table. We have seen the abandoned houses, recovered tapes, webcams and people continuing to hold cameras long after any sane person would have started running, so Tristan Reed’s The Depths immediately got my attention by introducing astral projection into the equation.

A brother and sister, Parker and Tommy, learn how to leave their bodies, and what they experience begins revealing something much darker connected to their family’s trauma. It’s a strange combination of found footage, supernatural horror and eventually slasher territory, but there’s enough originality in the premise to give the movie an identity of its own.

Bella Bonanno and Ryan Yauger play Parker and Tommy, with Eric Roberts appearing as Professor Conrad. The relationship between Parker and Tommy gives the movie something more personal underneath all the supernatural craziness, as Reed isn’t using astral projection simply as an excuse to throw creepy imagery at us. Their family history becomes wrapped up in what they discover, giving Bonanno and Yauger the difficult job of selling a believable sibling relationship while also convincing us that leaving your physical body and wandering around outside of it is something these people are actually experiencing.

The astral-projection sequences are easily what I liked most, particularly when Parker and Tommy begin venturing into places their physical bodies obviously cannot. Doors and walls suddenly don’t mean what they normally mean in a found-footage movie, creating this uncomfortable sensation that we’re looking at something we shouldn’t be able to see, while the sound design gives some of these moments a surprisingly physical presence. That’s where The Depths really clicked for me, because the movie feels at its most confident when it embraces how strange and unsettling the idea can be.

I only wish Reed had pushed those sequences further. At around 88 minutes the movie shouldn’t have much trouble keeping its momentum, yet there are stretches where the pacing slows and I found myself waiting for the next big supernatural moment to pull me back in. The concept had me expecting each trip to become progressively stranger or more dangerous, and while there are certainly unsettling moments along the way, I never felt like the movie completely exhausted the possibilities of what Parker and Tommy were doing.

Where The Depths lost me somewhat was its increasing shift toward slasher territory. I obviously have nothing against a good slasher, but that’s familiar ground, while the supernatural side of this story is what separates it from the crowd. As the more traditional horror elements begin taking over, some of the strange atmosphere that made the earlier material interesting gets pushed aside. It doesn’t ruin the movie, and I understand wanting to mash different flavors of horror together, but I was considerably more invested in the mystery and uneasiness surrounding Parker and Tommy than I was in seeing the movie become something more recognizable.

I also have to give some love to Blake, played by Benjamin Sanchez, who somehow manages to become one of those supporting characters you remember after everything is over. Considering this is a movie dealing with astral projection, family trauma and people wandering around outside their own bodies, the fact that Blake still manages to leave an impression is pretty impressive.

What I appreciate most about The Depths is that Reed clearly came into his first feature wanting to try something rather than simply recreate the horror movies that inspired him. Not everything works equally well, the pacing could use some tightening, and I think the movie becomes less interesting as it moves toward more conventional territory, but there’s imagination behind it. Independent horror needs filmmakers willing to take chances like that, even when the finished product doesn’t completely stick the landing.

The Depths isn’t perfect, but I came away more interested in what Reed might do next than frustrated by what didn’t work here, and I’ll take that as a positive. There’s a genuinely cool horror movie at the center of this, along with a filmmaker showing enough creativity to make me curious about where he goes from here. I’d much rather watch someone take a swing at something unusual and come up a little short than sit through another perfectly competent version of something I’ve already seen 50 times.