Director: Mickey Keating. With: Jocelin Donahue, Melora Walters, Joe Swanberg, Richard Brake. USA 2021. 83 mins.
FrightFest favourite writer/director Mickey Keating returns with his finest horror fantasy yet. Coping with the recent death of her eccentric actress mother Ava, Marie Aldrich is shocked to receive a letter from the Lone Palms cemetery curator saying her grave has been vandalised. Returning with trepidation to her mother’s hated isolated island home with her husband to repair the damage, she soon becomes trapped in an unfolding nightmare of deceit, betrayal and the curse of ‘The Man from the Sea’. An astonishing slice of Southern Gothic, featuring superb acting and stunning directorial finesse, Keating’s sixth feature is his breakout masterpiece.