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New Century of Cinema
DOWSE Guide to the
Movies
by Tony Lee editor of
Pigasus
Press
The Eternal
91 minutes (15) High Fliers
Director: Michael Almereyda
review by Rob Marshall
'Two pints of Guinness and a packet of crisps, please!' OK, so no-one actually says
that in this spooky mystery set in Ireland, but when a couple of unrepentant
alcoholics visit the woman's slightly barmy uncle (underplayed by Christopher Walken)
you'd expect one of them to get some in before the pub landlady called last orders.
The Eternal has nothing to do with Mark Chadbourn's novel of the same title.
That's not a problem, though, because there's plenty of uncanny stuff going on anyway.
The woman suffers blackouts and grainy flashbacks to a childhood tragedy. The mad
uncle keeps a 2000 year-old witch's corpse (preserved by a local peat bog) in his
cellar. Alice, a young girl adopted by Walken, lights cigarettes for the resident
batty granny when not narrating the convoluted plot. The corpse is revived and turns
murderous and seductive and then motherly. IRA gunmen appear from nowhere but fall
victim to druid magic. How exactly do you prevent 'the transmigration of a soul',
anyway? Some of the imagery in this odd little chiller is quite extraordinary.
Although the meagre budget limits effects to a shock throat slashing, clever animation
and falling down stairs stunts, the imaginative use of camera angles and adroit
performances from the leads - Alison Elliott has dual roles as the silent witch and
troubled wife of Jared Harris (who does a fair impression of Walken at one point!) -
combine, winningly, to generate a notable sense of unease throughout.
If you liked Ghost Story and enjoy traditional horror tales, see this
one soon.
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