The Shadow Within Movie Review

The Shadow Within is an Italian movie, originally released in the English language, which was later dubbed into many languages such as German, Russian, Chinese, Hindi, etc. This film is directed by Silvana Zancolo with Hayley J Wiliams, Laurence Belcher, and Beth Winslet in lead roles. Bonny Ambrose, Rod Hallett, and Georgia Mitchell are seen in supporting roles. The movie focuses on paranormal phenomena, primarily being a horror genre. It is written by Daniel Aarons, Giovanni Eccher, and the director Silvana Zancolo; produced by Paolo Lato, Anna Maria Murro. 

Plot

The movie revolves around a 9-year-old boy named Maurice Dumont, who has the ability to see dead people. This supernatural power of his is discovered by his mother, Marie, who gets very shocked by the revelation. When thinking about this, Marie gets reminded of her child Jacques (Maurice’s twin), who died at birth. Soon, Marie gets influenced by Madame Armand, their neighbor, who convinces Marie to use Maurice as a connection to his brother, who is in the afterlife. Maurice accepts and after performing a shady ritual, Jacques comes to the living world using his brother’s body as a medium, and soon things unfold. Jacques starts to desire his parents’ love, and he does not want to go back to being dead. He comes up with an idea: to take his parents with him to the world of the dead. 

Star Performance

Laurence Belcher, who played the role of the 9-year-old Maurice Dumont, did a decent job in conveying the personality of the boy. Moreover, the only notable performance in this movie would be Laurence’s. The rest of the actors were mediocre and did not really stand out much to the crowd. Few even were an eye-sore to the public. Many reviewers stated that this movie was watchable due to the sole reason for this boy’s acting. 

Analysis

The movie is set in the 1940s and was filmed in the area where the director grew up, which gave the movie a good ambiance and feel. But that doesn’t make a movie good. Although the plot might seem interesting and compel the readers to watch it, the movie isn’t all that good. The creepy sound effects, homicidal shadows, and the almost puke-worthy gory scenes are a big no to the film. The direction wasn’t good because the scenes were merely taken, not inducing any kind of tension in the viewers. The story of the young boy simply wasn’t engaging and an awful portrayal of the mother’s character made the movie more agonizing to watch. Moreover, the horror scenes were messy, adding to the lack of horror expected from a horror movie. To be more precise, the entire movie was very dull, and the story was told in a boring way. 

What’s There?

● Good concept and plot of the film, seemingly attracting viewers’ attention

● Commendable acting of the main character- Maurice Dumont (Laurence Belcher) as the young boy.

What’s Not There?

● Dull screenplay and flow of the movie

● Extremely gory scenes but messy horror

● Not engaging the audience

● Lot of boring scenes

Verdict

The plot and storyline of the movie were quite promising, but the movie itself wasn’t so good to watch. Although the lead character’s performance was good, the overall direction of the movie made it frustrating to watch. Further, all that expected from the movie wasn’t present, making it almost a waste of time. Overall, it’s not really worth a watch.