SHACKLED (2010)

Directed by Dave McCabe
Written by Ambrose McDermott, Stephen Cumiskey, Dave McCabe
Starring Brian Fortune, Ruth McIntyre, Donna Bradley, Andy Blaikie, Gerry Shanahan, Vivienne Connolly

This gloomy little film from Ireland has shades of THE WICKER MAN and ROSEMARY’S BABY in terms of conspiratorial cult activity permeating the entire story. While I don’t know if I can wholeheartedly recommend SHACKLED, it is worth mentioning in terms of establishing a mood on a very low budget.

Sarah returns home for her brother’s funeral to find that his murder is unsolved. Soon Sarah is asked to take mysterious medications by visiting nurses and investigators start snooping about her place. It doesn’t take a genius to piece together that something is amiss. When Sarah’s ex offers to help her, they find themselves on the run from a cult with…well, I’m not sure what it is they are interested in doing. The film culminates with a chase through a mansion Sarah has been seeing in her dreams.

This film so much wants to be a big budget action movie, but I believe it aims just a bit too high. Had the filmmakers kept the story within their budgetary range, I think McCabe would have had a pretty great film. Instead, despite some decent performances from stars Ruth McIntyre and Brian Fortune, the story takes avenues just out of their pay grade. The climax in the mansion is supposed to be a raging inferno; instead we get computer generated animated flames. The camera is a bit static and stable for the tension it’s trying to communicate, and the blank masked cultists aren’t as ominous as they want to be with their plastic masks.

Still, despite some eerie dream sequences, SHACKLED proves to be a low budgeter that tries a little too much to play in the big leagues. There are some nice moments of mood. Clouded corridors walled with robed masked figures show up from time to time. The music in this film is especially well done (I loved the haunting “Close Your Eyes” by folksinger Bill Coleman), elevating this to another spooky level. But that doesn’t distract from the fact that it wants to be something it is not.

Check out the trailer here!!