Rent Shadow People (2013)

Rather good. Mild spoilers ... - Shadow People review by NP

When we first meet night-time radio host, the permanently dishevelled Charlie Crowe, he comes across as a boor. When we subsequently meet his gold-digging ex-wife, his foul estranged son and arrogant replacement husband, we sympathise with him a little. He has no time for time wasters on his radio show, and ridicules and dismisses a caller who claims to … ‘see’ things. You might successfully identify that as a mistake.

This is a surprisingly effective horror. I’m not sure why I am surprised by this, but I found the attention to detail and expertly handled, often subtle chills employed by director/writer Matthew Arnold immersive. The casting is very good, with a range of idiosyncratic, convincing performances. And the story does its best to convince us that events actually took place (not that I have reason to doubt it) by some actual footage from news items at the time, and features some actual radio callers to Crowe’s show.

The idea of ‘shadow people’ is an intriguing one, and makes great horror. Since film production began all those many decades ago, shadows have played a huge part in sinister visuals – so the notion they may have a life-force of their own is very attractive. ‘Shadow People’ is certainly not faultless however – sometimes the interspersed real-life footage slows things down too much, and this is a slow-burning story anyway. Also, it should be mentioned that ultimately, this is quite an intimate tale, focussing on what Crowe would do – or wouldn’t do – to make his life more satisfactory, rather than any major wider-spread scares, which never dominate proceedings for very long.