The Canal - Outstandingly Creepy (JAR OF FATE #1)
Like many horror fans, I obsessively collect horror movies on DVD and Blu-Ray. They sit in piles around my tiny apartment. Some are collector’s editions, some come from Scream Factory, lots of them are gifts. Some come from the $5 bin at Walmart, and a lot come from library sales where they’re only $1. Or that time HMV went out of business and I bought their entire horror collection for like $100. And sure, I may have four copies of Carrie, but I regret nothing.
Unfortunately, obsessively picking up horror movies means there’s a lot I haven’t watched. Whether it be that I’ve never seen the movie before, or I haven’t seen this particular version, or I have never cracked open the DVD because the movie is streaming and I’m lazy.
How do I solve this guilt I have as I sit streaming Netflix while piles of DVD’s surround me, judging quietly? I made a TO BE WATCHED jar, or as my friend Zo named it; JAR OF FATE. I went through my collection and wrote down all the movies I wanted to watch on little scraps of paper and whenever I want to watch something, I pull randomly from the jar.
The first random choice was The Canal, a 2014 Irish horror film written and directed by Ivan Kavanagh.
This incredible flick is one man’s descent into madness as he loses everything he loves, or is it a story of a man being possessed by a murderous ghost while everyone around him thinks he’s going crazy?
Basic Premise:
David and his wife move into a beautiful old home that sits next to a canal and they have a baby. Five years later things are not so picture perfect. David, a film archivist, is given a reel of footage from 1902 that shows a murder in his house, as he begins to investigate, he discovers his wife is cheating on him. He follows her and sees her having sex with a colleague of hers. He runs, vomits everywhere, and passes out in a creepy, decrepit public bathroom. When he gets home he realizes his wife has gone missing. A few days later her body is found in the canal. Who killed her? And why does the 1902 footage so closely resemble the modern-day events going on in David’s life? And why won’t anyone believe him when he sees things moving around his house and coming out of his wall?
“People always suspect the husband. You know why that is? ‘Cause it’s always the husband…every fucking time.”
Here's what I loved:
Every single frame of this movie feels important. Every scene has a reason for being there and there’s such a sense of love behind the camera for this story that you feel yourself quickly loving it too.
Working as a film archivist sounds like a totally dope job. And I know this is a movie version of this job, but hi, I would like to watch old crime scene footage from the 1900’s and make notes on it.
When David discovers a murder happened in his house in 1902 he comes home to see his wife, walks into the bedroom and straight up goes, “Had the strangest day, turns out a husband murdered his wife in our bedroom in 1902. Crazy huh? Let’s go to the party.” I mean….that’s not verbatim. But what a way to share that news. She’s just standing there half dressed like, “………………………what?”
The crime scene footage is super cool, any of the old camera footage used is really effective and incredible. One particular scene when we’re nearing the finale has David showing his colleague some footage he filmed at the canal. It shows a creeping figure slowly rise out of the reeds and walk towards the camera. IT WAS SO CREEPY!
There’s honestly just so many great creepy shots in this movie. You’re constantly checking the background to see if the murderous ghost is lurking and you kind of want him to be, but also, you’re scared he is. One particular scene was super creepy where David was hugging his son while sitting on the bed, and in the background is the ghostly figure lurking in the shadows. I NEEDED AN ADULT.
We love when someone goes slightly crazy in a movie and covers a wall with “evidence” and newspaper clippings.
There’s a very specific scene at the end where a baby…is…being born…sort of…from a dead body…kind of….IT WAS SO GROSS. And so well done. You’re so fucking tense at this point, you think David has gone completely insane and now he’s seeing his dead wife give birth in a canal tunnel and it’s TOO MUCH. My poor heart.
“You think I’m having a nervous breakdown don’t you?....Well, maybe I am.”
Here’s what’s really great about this movie: the ending.
You spend the whole flick with David who is a very unreliable narrator. Every other scene you’re like, oh yeah, this man is crazy, and then the next scene you’re like….wait…no…he’s sane, that ghost is fucking real. It’s very much the woman trying kombucha on video for the first time. And I just love movies like this where you’re never quite sure. And near the end you’re lead to believe firmly that David was insane and has passed away, and thank goodness his little boy is now going to live with his very sane Grandma and is out of harms way. Then David whispers through a crack in the wall and his son listens, leading him to THROW HIMSELF OUT OF A MOVING VEHICLE. This is so fucking shocking. And the movie ends with confirmation that this shit was 100% real. There is a very real, and very scary murderous ghost situation going on in that house and the canal.
An outstandingly creepy ghost film that I will recommend aggressively to everyone.
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