So beautifully shot, Fallen is a movie worth watching despite its disjointed plot. Worth watching for horror fans, that is. Apart from the night scenes, this is art house cinematography, and that may be because it’s an independent movie. What’s it about? That’s difficult to say, definitively. The night scenes are so dark that you can’t tell what’s happening and the plot seems to have been intentionally obscure. (That’s hard to substantiate because the 2022 film hasn’t generated too much discussion.) This may have been another case of mistaken identity, like The Entity, because my notes only had the title down. There are at least three movies with this title. I’m learning my lesson to jot down the year when I add a movie to my “to see” list. In any case, here goes…
A young priest (?) is warned by an older priest that it is time to take up violence because the darkness has started. The younger priest is called “Father Abraham,” but he wears a tie in church services, and a small pectoral cross, making identification of the denomination difficult. Since this is religion-based horror you’d think that that much, at least, ought to have been sorted out. The heavily accented dialog is often delivered so low that it’s difficult to follow. In any case, this minister, after fighting “darkness” for many years, is in an isolated farmhouse with his disabled daughter. He hunts and traps for their needs and a local boy delivers groceries, and is secretly in love with the daughter. The minister, who seems to be presented as a tortured soul, isn’t really likable. At night the house is attacked by physical demons. There will be spoilers in the next paragraph.
It’s finally revealed that Fr. Fallen (apparently that’s his surname) had killed his wife for being a witch. His daughter is also a witch, out for revenge for her mother’s death. She summoned the demons and eventually kills her father and leaves the farm. Religious imagery is everywhere in this film and begs for interpretation. The lack of coherence, however, makes that very problematic. The disabled daughter is the only survivor at the farmhouse, and is healed at the end. By the demons? Or because she’s a witch? The influence of M. Night Shyamalan is evident, but his clean plotting is absent. Online discussion is minimal, but there could be something of substance here. If only it were better put together. If only it were more discussed.
