Do characters in horror movies ever watch horror movies? Clearly David (Rupert Evans), the protagonist of The Canal, hasn’t been paying attention to the genre. Why else would the movie archivist sit through an uncovered 1902 police film detailing a grisly crime: a husband’s murder of his unfaithful wife. Images of mutilated corpses and blood-splattered knives do little to settle David’s already nervy disposition – and he becomes further worked up as it emerges the 1902 murder took place in... his actual house! Oh, and his own wife (also unfaithful) has just turned up dead. Yikes.
Director Ivan Kavanagh’s film tackles an array of ideas and influences: ancient demons, haunted houses, cursed technologies, and the fractured mindset of a disturbed widower.
With so much going in, it is no surprise that the movie scores as many misses as hits. Worst of all there is no character arc or tension, with David a moist wreck from the start. And so it continues, until an admittedly chilling conclusion, which will have you sitting bolt upright.
A superb Antonia Campbell Hughes helps ratchet the tension, as does the super-creepy score. Sadly, there’s far too much going here and the excess is ultimately exhausting.