The Conspiracy of Dark Falls (2020)

I really hate to pan independent British films. Securing funding is always a nightmare for even the most established of producers and it must have been for auteur Flynn Moores with this mystery sci-fi. This story centres around author "Nick" (the wooden as a washboard Ethan Chapples) who arrives in the eponymous English village that has a secretive, unwelcoming, feel to it. "Nick" is pretty much on the back foot as he becomes more curious about just what is going on but fortunately, "Alex" (Jo Hart) is soon on hand to help him get to the bottom of things as his own life starts to take some unfathomable twists and turns and his mind feels like it's losing grasp on reality. Thus far, the dark forest photography works well to create a slightly claustrophobic effect that works ok, but the constant rather banal narration from our visitor and the all-too-frequent single man on the phone, or one-shot where there should be two-shot, style of static direction renders the thing increasingly paceless and actually rather dreary to watch. The plot ends up largely preposterous and the burgeoning romance between the two characters really does leave you wanting to scream "kiss already!" at the screen as the whole thing trudges along. It's had ideas - they were just left on the storyboard as the film really struggles to lift itself out of the realms of student project and I'm afraid this really doesn't have much to recommend it, sorry.