"Amber's Descent" is the story of Amber (Kayla Stanton), a musician who after a horrific incident involving her fiance, moves into a large house out in the country in order to recover emotionally and have some solitude to complete her symphony. The house needs some work, so handyman Jim (co-writer Michael Mitton) helps around the house. He seems nice, but wants to get closer to Amber than Amber wants him to. In the house, though, Amber begins to see apparitions; she hears music and sees a strange woman, parts of her symphony seem to be written without her remembering writing it, she has erotic lesbian encounters that may or may not be a dream... She tries to get people, like a local priest and her doctor, to help but everyone assures her that what's she's experiencing cannot be possible but she is convinced and tries to solve the mystery...
Movies that involve someone all alone experiencing things that nobody else experiences can only go in one of two directions. The events are happening and they are victims of the supernatural, or it's all in their heads, and then there are typically a couple of ways that resolves itself. "Amber's Descent" is nicely going down that path -- the events causing Amber to be in this house are played out well, Kaya Stanton does a wonderful jon making us care for Amber and empathize with her. And then, at about the 30 minute mark or so, the movie simply gives away which of the two options is happening. We give a heavy sigh, and then we spend the rest of the movie just waiting for the eventual reveal. And what's truly disappointing is that the movie actually had a totally original, really good reveal. It was clever and something I hadn't seen before and then they just chickened out, added a SECOND "ending reveal" which was a typical reveal in these type of movies andone we've seen dozens of times before. And then, for a pile-on, they added a THIRD "twist" at the end which basically just made things not make any sense at all.
This movie really feels like a victim of overthinking and trying to be too clever. Take out the early "give away what's happening" part and end the movie after the first "ending reveal" and this would be a pretty slick film. Almost hope the director pulls the movie back, re-edits it a little and re-releases it.
