The Moor

The Moor (2023)
Directed by: Chris Cronin
Written by: Paul Thomas
Starring: Bernard Hill, Chris Cronin, David Edward Robertson, Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips, Sophia La Porta

Atmospheric and dread, first-Time director Chris Cronin delivers one of the finest British horror film in years…..

Its starts with a simple yet frightening set-piece. Its 1996 and the fore-boding score already weeps from the screen as we stare at an alley, somewhere in Yorkshire.

Claire (Billie Suggett) a typical eleven year old is out with her younger pal Davey (Dexter Sol Ansell), hatching a simple plan to steal some treats from a typical corner newsagent. Its what kids do. But this time, it goes wrong. As Claire runs from the shop, proud of her actions, leaving Davey behind, she stands in that alley, waiting to marvel at their accomplishment. But Davey never arrives and swallowing her nerves, she re-enters the store only to be told that the boy has just left with someone. Who? Did that car we glimpse parked outside mean something? There is already fear of dread, dripping from your palms and then the credits roll, newspaper clippings, TV reports of missing kids…you’ll be forgiven for immediately thinking of a certain true-like case.

The Moor starts as it means to go on. Delivering a nightmare and then running confidently with its outcome and delivery. You can sense there is something evil in the fog, the scale of the moors itself, offering a haunting landscape, but exactly where are we heading is a question that lingers hard, its already got you gripped in its vice and won’t let go.

Twenty fives years have passed and Claire (Sophia La Porta), still guilt ridden for her lost friend, taken by a serial child abduction, who was caught for his crimes, but the bodies never found, believed to be somewhere buried within those moors and with the perpetrator on the verge of release, much to the dismay of Davey’s still grieving father Bill (David Edward-Robinson), wants Claire to search the moors with him once more, to find his son and hopefully gather new evidence.

Guilt and grieve lingers hard among the trek, as each lingering shot of the huge vast area brings a sense of doom, with even the watching sheep, looking on with an expression “You should not be here!” and you start to believe, they shouldnt.

With the stylish deft touch from first time director Chris Cronin who cleverly plays with all the modern traits, familiar with genre fans, by offering scenes that riff of found-footage and documentary style horror that fits nicely into the search, there is a purposeful slow-pace to proceedings with Cronin unwilling to show his hand, the film demands that you watch and you’ll find that you simply can’t take your eyes off the screen.

When the young psychic Eleanor (Dormer-Phillips) adds herself to the search, having pin-pointed an exact location of where the bodies could be, you feel that there is now no going back. They will find something on those moors, but what exactly?

Once more a film like this proves that you don’t need a bogeyman in a mask to bring terror. One early set-piece of a discovery of a child’s shoe, sends chills through you’re every bone and you literally at times can feel that fog wrap around your own neck as you breath hard for some air of positivity.

Add spooky 5000-year-old rune carvings to the mix and an ending that only you can decide if it works or not, The Moor won’t be for everyone, those longing for bloodshed will no doubt ask “why the hype”, but if you invest, give the film its full attention, with the music score, playing such a pivotal part, you’ll find this tale creeping under your skin. Its a proper old fashioned horror, with great scare scenes that leave a mark, long after the credits roll.

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