This formulaic thriller throws everything at the wall, but nothing quite sticks.
★★☆☆☆
Based on B.A. Paris’ 2017 novel The Breakdown, Blackwater Lane has a promising set up. It follows Cass Anderson (Minka Kelly), an American teacher living in England with her husband (Dermot Mulroney). On her way home one night Cass takes a shortcut through the woods and passes a stalled car with a woman inside. Instead of stopping to investigate, she drives home—only to discover the next morning that the woman has been murdered.
In the wake of the crime a series of strange events begin happening around her home, causing Cass to question her sanity. Unfortunately, despite this intriguing setup of one woman’s bad choice coming back to haunt her, Blackwater Lane never quite lives up to its potential.
One of Blackwater Lane’s best and worst decisions is the beautiful mansion chosen for its setting. At first glance, the grand Elsing Hall is the perfect place to set this twisty tale that dances between genres. But as the film intermittently flirts with the idea of being a murder mystery, a supernatural thriller and a tale of a woman going mad, the grandiose setting becomes a distraction. Simply put, there is nothing deeper going on.
Blackwater Lane’s opening sequence seems to reference Hitchcock’s Rebecca, sliding serenely through the Anderson’s estate. But Rebecca’s Mandalay was more than a big, beautiful house; it was a symbol of everything that intimidated the self-flagellating second Mrs de Winter, and a reminder of the inimitable woman that came before her. Every good (potentially) haunted house is more than just a building. Gaslight’s flickering townhouse is stained by the murder of a relative; the Lutz’s of Amityville are terrorised not just by ghosts but the horror of being trapped in a money pit. Watching Kelly run around a Grade 1 listed medieval manor from the 1400s (with its own moat, of course) with little to no explanation of her level of wealth, the history with the house, or her feelings on being an American expat in a very English village quickly becomes distracting. Every time Cass flees past another beautiful architectural feature, her finances become a more interesting mystery than the murder.
To be fair, Blackwater Lane does answer these questions—but only in its rushed final fifteen minutes. Anything that could have been thematically resonant is withheld in the name of completely unsatisfying and predictable twists.The film at times feels overstuffed. The plot is balancing three possibilities: a potential killer on the loose, a potential haunted house and a woman potentially going mad. Confusion is an inherent, intentional part of the narrative, but Blackwater Lane adds frustratingly unnecessary details that seem to go nowhere. For example, Cass seems to ‘communicate’ with her dead mother via tarot cards, an event which is barely explained and only features in one scene after being introduced as a key part of the opening sequence.
The film is nicely shot, with a slick production that puts it well above the TV movie/ Lifetime Channel entries into the thriller genre. Kelly, Mulroney and Maggie Grace are perfectly serviceable as the main players, doing their best with what they have, but the characters are ultimately hard to get a grasp on. Some of their increasingly baffling actions could maybe be argued as purposeful character choices, but they come across more as plot holes. The pacing has a similar problem, jumping from scene to scene in a discordant manner which could either signify the protagonist’s fractured state of mind or simply be bad writing. Unfortunately, it seems to lean more towards the latter.
The Verdict
Blackwater Lane is a story that has been done a hundred times before—and better. The film’s production quality, beautiful setting and decent performances set it above some of its peers, but for the most part Blackwater Lane’s secrets are probably better left buried.
Words by Louise Eve Leigh
Blackwater Lane is now available on Digital Download
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