Across the River

Quite an interesting intro, we've a scientific individual out doing his thing. The vibe and atmosphere are so creepily choice, the way they use the lighting really gives it an eerie feeling of unease. Night in the forest is very hauntingly still, until it is not. Masterful cinematography accomplished setting the entire feel of the film and the pure unease in the viewer of the film.

...Magnificent Italian Horror Cinema...

The Plot.

The story revolves around an ethologist working in the remote woods, trapping animals and mounting cameras on them so that he can monitor their behavior remotely.

The resulting recordings lead him to a remote village, the site of an ancient curse, where he is trapped due to heavy rain fall raising the level of the river and flooding out the only access...

I saw this in Italian with no subtitles and I do not speak Italian. For the most part, there was no need in that there is little dialog. And the dialog that is there doesn't impede your understanding of the movie if you don't understand it.

I thought the movie was pretty decent, if a bit slow. It's atmospheric in nature and takes it's time.

I don't agree with the clown who gave this one star. He must not like intelligent movies.

The biggest pitfall of this film is that it really is too slow. That's too bad because it could have been great.

The guy, lone in this rinky dink "village" sure is brave. I'd have high tailed it out of there with the first sign of weirdness and that came before the rains!

As it stands, I'm giving it an 8 because I liked the concept as well as the execution. And it was a bit unique. It's hard to pull off a story with virtually one character and no dialog. I think they did it.

Points off because as I say earlier, it's a bit too slow.

Across the River isn't for everybody. Its a very slow burning, atmospheric ghost tale that doesn't spell everything out for you.

An ecologist becomes lost after studying animals in the woodlands located at the border between Italy and Slovenia. He seeks refuge in what he believes to be an abandoned village, but he soon finds out that the village has a history, and he is in grave danger.

Atmospherically, this movie is fantastic. Its very slow burn allows it to slowly creep up on you, with the scenery and score, both beautiful and haunting.

My biggest problem with the film is that it seemed to be filling in time at some stages. There were periods where it felt like it wasn't going anywhere and clips of spooky housing and wilderness began to become a little repetitive. Fortunately though ,it never lost my interest.

So to sum it all up. If you are a casual horror film with no interest in attention to details, you will hate Across the River. There are no jump scares or excessive gore/kills. But if you appreciate horror that is deeply psychological, then Across the River is definitely worth a look.

Very happy to have it in my collection!

The action of "Across the River" takes place in the deep dark woods on the border of Italy and Slovakia.Ethologist Marco Contrada(Marco Marchese)conducts his regular wildlife survey via trapping wild animals and putting cameras on them.He wants to research and analyze their nocturnal activity.But it seems that mysterious presence is butchering foxes and wild pigs in the woods.The answer lies in the cursed ruins of a deserted village where two ghostly female figures lurk."Across the River" has very little plot.The main character is constantly alone in the wilderness.The action is slow and the film lacks of dialogue and character development.Still there are several genuinely eerie and atmospheric moments and the location sets are fantastic.The decayed village is insanely creepy and the feeling of isolation is strikingly well-crafted.Also the soundtrack by Stefano Sciascia is wonderfully evocative and moody.Very unconventional horror movie,but not for everyone.8 forest streams out of 10.

It's kind of funny to see how many people are a bit confused because the movie does not have the usual arc of tension (can I say so?) and it has a different build-up than most other, even independent, movies. The 1-star-Michael-Bay-Fan from NJ perhaps fails to recognize talent or to distinguish talent from pumping money into a movie to compensate lack of talent. This movie is great IF you love suspense movies and real horror, not pseudo-horror caused by tons of gore. As a matter of fact, this movie does without ANY cheap effect. Being hooked by this movie (the blu-ray contains a very cool Irish short named "Foxes" as well) and the brilliant soundtrack I got myself the DVD for Custodes Bestiae, a 2004 self-produced movie by the same director. That one had a budget of about €30,000 and it's absolutely great. Go for it!