Film archivist David (Rupert Evans) and his wife Alice (Hannah Hoekstra) are very much in love and they have a little son Billy. Looking at an old film one day in the course of his work, David discovers that his home was the scene of a gory murder in the early 1900s. David also learns around the same time that his wife is having an affair with Alex (Carl Shaaban).
One night Alice is murdered and her body is dumped in the canal. Inspector McNamara (Steve Oram) is convinced David is responsible, which David denies. He claims he witnessed his wife in an altercation with the man who appears to be her new lover on the night she disappeared. Meanwhile, the young nanny (Kelly Byrne) gets caught up in David’s obsessive quest to solve his wife’s murder.
The Canal essentially operates in the same territory as Sinister and The Conjuring, to pick just two from a mind-numbing litany of recent schlock horror films. To witness an Irish film offer little sense of originality and instead shamelessly flaunt its obvious similarities to these movies is disappointing.
Both the above mentioned films use paraphernalia - let’s call it that - to try and beef up flimsy scenarios. A box of disturbing home movies found in the attic in the case of the former, microphones and a tape machine used to locate evil spirits in the case of the latter. The reason this gimmickry was employed is because the producers did not want a screenplay that told an actual scary story, as in a compelling, intelligent narrative.
As is the case with those recent Hollywood creations, the plot in The Canal is negligible. In fact it’s hardly a plot at all after the dismal phantasmagoric and bloody excess has dulled your vision and smashed your ear-drums with deafening noise effects.
Witness too our our old nemesis ‘paraphernalia’ once again, as David projects film he has recently shot on an antique movie camera to reveal a shadowy, looming creature who appears to be wearing the dress his wife wore on the night she disappeared. And that’s about it. No faulting the actors, mind, they have to work with the cards they are dealt with. Don’t bother.
Paddy Kehoe
