| Temple Wood: A Quest for Freedom (2012) |
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| Director: | Ethan Race |
| Writers: | Ethan Race |
| Starring: | Adam Butcher |
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The Plot: Temple Wood: A Quest for Freedom tells the story of Martin, a young student whose professor goes missing while investigating ancient practices set around an ancient burial ground in the Scottish highlands. Martin packs up his things, finds a small room for rent, and takes up his professor’s investigation of Temple Wood. However, he soon finds that his professor’s disappearance may be related to ancient druid practices and some very dark happenings within these highlands. As Martin explores, he finds that he finds himself digging deep into his own emotions and if he is ever allowed to leave these highlands – he will never be the same again. |
| The Review |
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Director Ethan Race likes for his film to occasionally overdose on style. While the movie starts off with a palette and design that seems to evoke a classically toned down style of British horror, the movie ultimately becomes a bit more “out there” as it moves along. The dream sequences of our main protagonist are nice demonstrations of this. Featuring some very retro process shots and some very surreal imagery, these sequences make this otherwise dreamy movie become completely abstract. Although Race does a great job in showing off the Scottish highlands, when it comes to these bizarre dream sequences, he truly gets to show off his visual eye. Indeed, there are few dull shots to be found in Temple Wood. Whether by brilliant composition or an insane amount of luck, Ethan captures some absolutely beautiful lighting within the Scottish countryside and the director shows off an affinity for deep contrasting shadows. Night shoots can be a pain for independent filmmakers usually, but Race shows a masterful hand with them. Using very simple methods for lighting, sometimes apparently using a flashlight to light the protagonist, Race manages to create some truly spooky scenes due to this very stripped down use of bright lights.
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| The Conclusion |
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