Movie review «Dagr»

On October 3, the British horror film with elements of satire started showing in cinemas, and in the format «found footage» — «Dagr». Interesting facts — the film was shot on iPhone and one of the executive producers is Ian McKellen, who has collaborated with English director Matthew Butler-Gard on several occasions, and needs no further introduction. In the review below, we will analyze whether viewers should look towards this low-budget movie.

«Dagr»

Genre folk-gore, found footage
Director Matthew Butler-Hart
Starring Ally Duckles, Reese Moritz, Tori Butler-Hart, Matt Barber, Emma King, Graham Butler, Getty Chapman, Luke Thompson
Premiere movie theaters
Year of issue 2024
Website IMDb

Two young girls, Thea and Louise, have decided to devote their lives to online robbery — they blog about how they rob the rich (can stealing a vase, for example, be considered a full-fledged robbery?) and give the proceeds to those in need. On the one hand, their motives seem to be noble, but on the other hand, are they really guided by purely high moral principles, without any personal benefit from this activity?

Now the girls, posing as caterers, are heading to some remote Welsh wilderness that has been chosen as the location for a new commercial. There, they plan to steal everything they can get their hands on — props, costumes, expensive filming equipment, etc. But when they arrive at their destination, the young haters of capitalism gradually realize that something terrible has happened. Or maybe it’s all just a staging, a cruel joke of experienced advertisers?

In the distant 99th The film was made for a pittance, but eventually grossed a huge box office and became a popularizer and benchmark for the found footage genre, which continues to be actively used by filmmakers to this day. The reasons for its popularity are obvious: production does not require large budgets, and the development of digital technologies makes it possible for anyone to pick up an iPhone and make their own masterpiece.

Unfortunately, despite some positive aspects, it’s hard to call «Dagr» a project that I would sincerely like to recommend. It’s not even about the modest budget, which, again, is the absolute norm within the — genre. The problem is that the film consists of some cautious fragments of ideas and hints — either satire, or horror about an evil entity, or mysterious rural mythology, instead of fully realizing any of these components. In the first half of the film, which is modest in its running time, the authors introduce the audience to the characters, and here and there we can read notes of satire about the bloggers who behave in an extremely irritating way. In fact, it is this factor that comes to the fore; and really, who among us has not been annoyed by young blogging adherents with some pranks or eccentricities at least once?

Parallel to this storyline, another one is unfolding, actually, — the filming of a commercial, and judging by what they are filming — it is not very inventive. However, this particular element looks like a breath of fresh air because then the narrative offers a development in the direction of «found footage within found footage». This is a fascinating solution that increases the degree of viewer involvement, but it cannot correct the overall sad situation.

In the context of scary episodes, «Dagr» is hardly a quality film. In the entire movie, only one short scene makes any impression at all, when the ghost mentioned in the title appears before the viewer. And this moment is effective not because of the evil entity’s creepy appearance, which is not the case, but because of its dynamics and a well-filmed «encounter» with otherworldly evil, supported by intrusive but appropriate sound effects.

Directed by Matthew Butler-Hart, as by way of example another English filmmaker, Paul W. S. Anderson, who drags his wife Tori Butler-Hart into every film. But his joys are apparently limited to this: here he didn’t even have enough money for the occasional unwashed grandfather who just begged to be there in a scene of a stopover during the bloggers’ trip. Such characters from the middle of nowhere can often be found in slashers, where they, for example, show the young heroes the way and then send them off with a look that reads «you shouldn’t be going there kids».