The Enchanted

Royce inherits a Florida farm in the middle of nowhere, and despite the warnings of local hunter, Booker T, becomes friendly, perhaps too friendly, with the shy daughter of his hired help.

The Enchanted is all about atmosphere, and some would probably not regard it as horror at all - a folktale or fairytale, perhaps. Director Carter Lord goes for a feeling of magic and growing unease, which he achieves deftly by using the natural world - the forest and its creatures - to suggest an otherworldliness, a portal between reality and imagination. It is the viewer's imagination that creates the horror, and those used to more visceral kinds of scariness may well not get this movie at all. Despite its short running time, the pace is slow, as it takes time for the viewer to get the feel of this strange, isolated place and its inhabitants.

Julius Harris, who plays Booker T, is the only actor here with whom I was familiar, and he delivers an understated, authoritative performance as the hunter / narrator. The rest of the cast are convincingly natural and understated, helping the illusion that this is a real place, yet a place where things are not at all what they seem. It also made me want to live there.

Imagine the films of Val Lewton, or perhaps Picnic at Hanging Rock, set in the Florida wilderness, and you will have some idea. I rated this film highly because there is perhaps no other film like it, and the feeling of strangeness it creates stays with you, even years later.