My spoiler free review for The Bloody Asylum that can be found at WordPress, Mr Geeky blog:
Sadly a film which has very undeservedly gone under the radar.
Soulmate is the award winning 2013 British feature film debut of Belgium film-maker Axelle Carolyn, more well known to many as the former wife and film-making partner of Neil Marshall, director of Dog Soldiers and The Descent. She also played a role in his 2010 film Centurion. Her most recent film, which she created and produced, is the highly acclaimed 2015 anthology film Tales of Halloween. She also contributed to it as the writer and director of the "Grim Grinning Ghost" segment starring Alex Essoe, star of the superb Starry Eyes from 2014. Axelle Carolyn also most recently co-wrote an episode of Netflix Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Chapter Nine: The Returned Man.
She conceived, wrote, and directed the modern set gothic horror Soulmate, which was produced by Neil Marshall. The film is in part inspired by the stories of M.R. James and the Henry James novella Turn of the Screw, most famously adapted into the 1961 film The Innocents and later the inspiration for the 2001 film The Others starring Nicole Kidman. However, Soulmate brings something slightly different to its inspirations. It is at its core a beautifully melancholic meditation on loss and grief with a superb lead performance by Anna Walton. She is complimented by a brilliant supporting cast of Tom Wisdom, Tanya Myers and the hugely underrated Nick Brimble, star of Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, The Sweeney tv series and films, and The Creature in Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound.
The film forgoes jump scares in favor of atmosphere and a slow build, making it feel different to many modern horror films. Along the way there are some unexpected twists and turns with a nuanced ambiguity even as the credits roll. The atmosphere of the film is accentuated by the breathtakingly beautiful bleak cinematography and production design coupled with the perfect use of music and sound.
Sadly for the British release Axelle Carolyn was forced by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) to make cuts to the suicide sequence because they felt even as an 18 certificate (hard R rating) there was too much focus on the technique shown and could be imitated. She, rightly so, felt that those cuts romanticized suicide and instead cut out the entire scene from the British version of the film, amounting to two minutes and thirty three seconds. To have her vision compromised because a key scene was cut must have hurt because it feels that this negates the impact of the entire film. Maybe this was the reason one of the best British films of recent years went under the radar and is now an almost forgotten film. The version I saw and reviewed is the uncut version that to this day is unjustly banned in the UK. Jokingly Axelle Carolyn calls it a Video Nastie, which it definitely is not.
For those who are looking for a subtle thoughtful horror film with depth and heart Soulmate is highly recommended.
Hopefully in the future we will see more from the extremely talented Axelle Carolyn.
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