Don’t Leave Home | SXSW 2018 Film Review

1980s Ireland is the setting for the atmospheric thriller Don’t Leave Home. A priest paints a portrait of a young girl praying in a grotto with heavenly beams shining down onto her. Shortly after, the little girl disappears – not only from her home, but from the painting. Cleared of any wrongdoing, the priest retreats to seclusion. When a struggling artist catches his eye, he makes her an offer she can’t refuse. But maybe this time, she should have.

Director Michael Tully’s follow up to his 2014 coming-of-age comedy, Ping Pong Summer, couldn’t be a further departure. The sunny shores of Maryland are replaced with the dreary backdrop of old Ireland. The only thing in common are they both take place in the 80s. The chilling backdrop of a four-hundred-year-old estate adds to the misty fog that seems to permeate every scene. Even those that are indoors. The settings are a character unto themselves, giving the viewer the sense that they are constantly being watched. What the film lacks in dialogue (and there is a lot lacking), the atmosphere makes up a large chunk of it.

Melanie Thomas, played by Anna Margaret Hollyman, is an artist whose anticipated showing ends up bombing, but succeeds in catching the attention of the reclusive priest. Hollyman is a beacon through the thick, Irish fog that shrouds the historic estate. She forms a bond with the priest (Lalor Roddy) as she spends more and more time in Ireland. This bond is much to the disdain of the caretaker, Shelly (Helena Bereen, whose character is reminiscent of a much more evil Nurse Ratched), and the mute butler eerily performed by David McSavage.

While the veil of something sinister looms throughout the film, and the performances are solid, the ride is a slow one. Minimal dialogue leads this drudgery until the last twenty minutes or so when most of the loose ends are tied up or explained. The ending is worth sticking around for and makes the final product feel like a cross between Dark Shadows and Twilight Zone. Oddly enough, this makes me want more. Maybe use this as a launching pad for a horror/science fiction/thriller franchise. Hmm…

Don’t Leave Home feels as if you’re slowly trudging through a murky bog in the backwoods of Ireland, but does end in a way that provides hope and makes you want to explore these urban legends to a deeper extent. Maybe next time we can get there a bit faster.