The Unkindness of Ravens

A well done independent movie, beautifully shot in the Scottish Highlands, that blends the horrors of PTSD with the fascinating Celtic legend of the "raven warriors". Atmospheric and unsettling, with its low budget only revealed with some dodgy CGI.

The Unkindness of Ravens wastes no time in delivering the viewer into the world of PTSD-suffering Andrew. At the urging of his therapist, Andrew retreats to a remote cottage in the wilderness of Scotland to face his demons - both the unshakeable memories of wartime atrocities, and the phantasmic cult of raven-men that haunt his every waking moment. An unhealthy dose of isolation and survivors guilt make Andrew quick fodder for his avian tormentors, as well as his own incriminating reflection. Playing out like an extended Jacob's Ladder type nightmare, the film sends Andrew through a gauntlet of terrors as we learn about the events which brought him to his fragile mental state.

Shy on dialog, Jamie Scott Gordon bares a heavy load, carrying the film as virtually its sole character. Jamie is fearless in his raw emotion and empathetic in his suffering. Lawrie Brewster's film is heavy with mood, yet economic and precise with its storytelling; starting from a gloomy foundation and only building from there.

Masterful cinematography and visual effects work by Gavin Robertson and Michael Brewster paint scene after scene of dire circumstances splayed across stark, barren landscapes, and dilapidated architectures. Joseph Ruddleston's score and Sarah Daly's sound design are perfect complements, adding an impactful voice to Andrew's distress.

I did like Lord of Tears and gave it 6 out of 10 but there is simply no comparison with The Unkindness of Ravens. Lord of Tears showed potential but the latest movie to come from director Lawrie Brewster shows that he got his act together with the issues that film had.

The acting is utterly intense and the pace is insane especially in the last half. I don't think I've actually seen an indie horror put someone through so such hell since perhaps A Serbian Film! I'd compare The Unkindness of Ravens to The Evil Dead with parts reminding me of Phantasm. If that doesn't make much sense it's because there is not many films as strange as this.

Some of the scenes are graphic and at times I had to look away as I have a thing about eyes... and so does this movie. It also made me feel for the character and the problems are vets come home with. You really care for him. Most important for me was that it didn't have a cop out ending - but an epic finale, won't say more than that.

Another plus is that they got the guy from Lord of Tears with the beard who I thought was really good.

Lord of Tears had me on the fence, but The Unkindness of Ravens seals the deal.

A horrible pastiche of too many other films and books.

At the core, it's a cross between The Spirals of Danu and The Warhammer novel "The Unkindness of Ravens", but without the mythos or sophistication.

Clunky dialogue and mile-wide-plot-holes make this boring by the numbers "horror" (and I use that term advisedly) one to avoid.

Trying to clear his head, a tormented war veteran decides to take a break from life in the scottish highlands to see if he can get back to a semblance of normality, but when he finds himself stalked by a strange group of winged creatures must try to figure out it's purpose to save his sanity.

On the whole, this was an intriguing if somewhat flawed genre effort. What works best with this one is the immensely effective look into the work of grief and despair that comes about by observing the main figure here. The exploration of his traumatic condition is handled rather strongly with the backstory about his harrowing military service that led to the death of his unit, and the need for closure on what transpired makes everything that takes place here feel not just immensely chilling but also quite earned. The immediate nature of the whole situation spells it out quickly and efficiently, with how he needs to come to terms with what's going on and why the trip is necessary, which soon gives way to the satisfying and harrowing series of encounters throughout here that follow, keeping him from accomplishing his mission. That comes about through a series of effective and never-ending types of encounters and visions that are impossible to tell the difference. Whether it's the interactions with the doppelganger version of himself constantly telling him to kill himself, the constant need to flashback on the past to get a grip on the military tragedies he's affected by, and the believing that there's something wrong with the crop of birds constantly on his every move, or it's the visions of the creatures pulling apart the bodies of their victims who are trapped inside a nether-realm of sorrow, the eerie and effective atmosphere throughout here are so well handled that it's sometimes hard to distinguish the truth for hallucination. This leads perfectly into the strong finale where the whole thing becomes an immensely entertaining and emotionally charged battle that deals with the grief and trauma of war in a wholly captivating way as well as the generally effective means of tying together the folklore of the area with the graphic visuals, all making for a lot to really like here. There are some issues to be had with this one. The main overarching factor against the film is the generally repetitive nature of the storyline, where it feels incredibly one-note about how the general torments and psychological warfare play out. With nearly everything here going for the kind of overly-familiar mind-games usually found here with the use of disfigured doubles, meandering scenes of nothingness while a demented and disturbing speech plays out, or flash visuals of something inhuman standing around watching everything, this one does come off with a recognizable and repetitive style. It's not generally noticeable, but it does start to play its hand when it starts going for the same thing later on to help tell its story about the connection between the raven-creature and the torments of his past, trying to influence him. These issues, alongside the obvious low-budget quality on display, all manage to bring this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.