The Thinning Veil Review from Mycho Entertainment!
I have a huge boiling pus-filled issue with some films, a complete insane pet hate because I find this sort of situation not funny, not big, not clever, and pointless. It has been stated in previous reviews and I will say it again because it kind of ruined The Thinning Veil for me — breaking the fourth wall, looking into the camera, centrally for the concluding parting shot!
It can work in comedies sometimes such as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and I know Oliver Hardy did it many times. That’s a knowing wink or an exasperated look of despair. In my disappointment I can think of only a handful of examples when it did not work off the top of my head whilst writing this — 2001 Maniacs, as much as I loved the Amicus anthologies they had to do it as well, the child at the end of Nightmare in a Damaged Brain (Nightmare), there was some fucking Olaf Ittenbach movie, I think it was Beyond the Limits, where an old caretaker in a cemetery looks at the camera, says something, the camera shakes, and backs off. Really??!!! A movie is escape from the real world. Why fucking remind us that it is a movie????!!!
MJ Dixon, your short film is great. The lighting is lush, the acting perfect, the concept quite stable and paced well until the finale shock happens. But then it all goes to hell in a nutshell with one lingering end moment…
Anyhow, let’s rewind and check out the man and film. MJ is a workaholic, at least going by his resume, between four and seven short films per year split this and share with at least a complete feature film per year and you have this bloke’s addiction to films. He’s also a musician and writes a ton of material. This guy sweats liquid celluloid. The Thinning Veil is a recent short flick he put out before hammering into a couple of lengthier projects (incidentally, if IMDb is right, MJ has nine creations mid-way, filming, planned, he doesn’t slow down much does he???!!).
The Thinning Veil is the time when the curtains between one world and the other are at their thinnest. It is said this happens around All Hallows Eve, Samhain, and such. We open to a young lady called Roberta sitting in her car at night as we hear laughing kids and ghostly sounds outside. It’s Halloween and the droves of kids are running door to door. Roberta is watching a house. She has a gun.
Inside the edifice resides Madam Brenda, who she has made an appointment to see. “Who do you want me to be?” asks Madam Brenda as she holds a net curtain to her face before Roberta calls in. The curtain is placed behind Roberta’s chair.
“So, is it true that you can help me?” Roberta asks. Madam Brenda replies it depends what she wants. She wishes to talk to someone, but the older woman explains her skill is reading cards and from the cards she defines the persons past, present, and outcome. “With the greatest of respect,” Roberta sounds annoyed, “I didn’t come all this way for some Mystic Meg bullshit!”
Madam Brenda then explains to her why she had to come that night, why the veil is at its thinnest, and then she begins to read the cards. Much to Roberta’s confusion, anger, then terror, the whole truth emerges as to who Roberta is, and what happened to the deceased person she wishes to speak to…
Please don’t take my view of the breaking the fourth wall thing a total negative bummer. Some people hardly notice it, and MJ is a very talented guy with some hits behind him. The Haunting of Molly Bannister is one of those films which you see in most UK DVD shops, and it’s by Mista Dixon. His Thorn series of slashers are becoming underground cult favourites, so this guy isn’t a fly-by-night one-trick-pony. I’ll be plugging his upcoming ventures on Severed Cinema indefinitely, but I am still at a loss for words how he figured this end shot was a jolly good idea.
The Thinning Veil is a good old-fashioned ghost story without needing lavish effects or blood all up the walls and jump scares. The two ladies are well balanced together, both having a history in the genre – Liza the last ten years or so. I couldn’t figure out just why Roberta had brought a gun along in the first place however, but I went along with it.
With the end credit’s music, and the overall feel, The Thinning Veil works remarkably well as a potential segment in a children’s or teenager’s spooky collection of short stories. Only then in my mind could that fateful lingering breaking the fourth wall monstrosity exist in a nice working environment.
Directed by: MJ Dixon | Written by: MJ Dixon | Produced by: Anna Dixon, Hill Burton, Luna Wolf | Editing by: MJ Dixon | Music by: MJ Dixon | Special Effects by: Luna Wolf | Cast: Tatiana Ibba, Liza Keast, the Hosier clan | Year: 2019 | Country: UK | Language: English | Colour: Colour | Runtime: 10 mins
Studio/Distributor: Mycho Entertainment Group