Written and Directed by Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer | 113 min | ▲▲

These Toronto-based filmmakers’ work found its way to me in the past: Violation, an effort at art house horror that left a whole lot to be desired. This film is taking their interest in genre in a very different direction, inspired by 1960s and 1970s creepfests like The Innocents and Don’t Look Now, all glazed in vaseline-smeared lenses and smoke, infused with folk horror and ghost stories — the production design is impressive. It’s set sometime in the ’70s, Diana and Homer (Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie) are a married couple who were recently in a car crash.

Her injuries include memory problems and she needs physical therapy, so Homer sends her to a medical clinic out in the woods, in an old house run by two none-more Ichabod Crane-esque performers, Kate Dickie (Game of Thrones) and Julian Richings (Hard Core Logo). Also present is a man played by Jason Isaacs (!) who’s caring for his daughter, played by India Brown. As Diana’s memory starts to return, she begins to understand complexities in her relationship that weren’t previously clear.

It’s so pointedly, self-consciously gothic it’s almost funny, and maybe that’s the point. Mancinelli and Sims-Fewer have either no management of tone, or are purposefully fucking with their story, swinging wildly between an exploration of marital devotion, some silly horror tropes, and a science fiction twist that doesn’t make any kind of sense. It makes you realize how gifted someone like Peter Strickland is — he plays similar stylistic and tonal games, but it works when he does it.

It doesn’t help that some of the acting is deft, and some amateurish, and Glowicki and Petrie have negative chemistry that undermines the part of the story devoted to them. Overall, a better second effort, but a ways to go yet for the filmmaking team.