WatchSeeLookView At The LFF 2019 - The Antenna

Second film of day 2 and, sad to say, we’ve hit a bump in the road on the festival journey...

The Antenna
Dir. Orçun Behram / Dur. 115 mins / Country. Turkey
Festival Strand:- Cult
In A Nutshell:- In an apartment block in a dystopian city, the installation of a new satellite dish for the glorious leader’s first midnight broadcast heralds the arrival of a mysterious black goo which begins to seep its way through the building...

The Good:- It starts off fairly strongly, with a cheap 80s aesthetic to this dystopian world. There’s a nice sense of style to some of the shots and the deliberate pace builds the tension somewhat as it becomes clear that something strange is going on in the block. There are also a few nice moments of David Cronenberg-style body horror to set the audience feeling a little squeamish.

The Bad:- Sadly, it doesn’t live up to any of this early promise. The film soon descends into a hodge-podge jumble of relatively uninteresting horror film tropes which have been seen many times before and pulled off in much better ways. The slow pacing, which worked nicely to start with, starts to become a chore as you get into the latter part of the film and I have to admit that I found myself just willing the thing to end. At one point, I was even beginning to get concerned that they would pull out the old “it was all a dream” ending. Never a good sign when your final thought at the end of the film is, “Well, at least I can go home now”.

The Verdict:- Early creepy promise is squandered as the film descends into a boring megamix of many a tried, tested and tired horror film trope. A real disappointment and the first festival film that I haven’t really enjoyed at all. Still, this is part and parcel of the festival - it’s a form of Russian Roulette as to what you’re going to get.

The Venue / Intro / Q&A:- The Prince Charles Cinema for this one so already familiar with that one, given that I’m a member (yes, I do have a few memberships).
No Q&A for this one. Most tellingly, standard convention at the end of a festival screening is that the audience applauds. This screening was greeted with stony silence and a number of swift exits for the door.