Review of Eden Log (2007) by Daniel K — 20 Aug 2009

1: A very strange and sometimes bewildering film. It essentially made me feel as if I were watching an extremely atmospheric survival horror-type game. It certainly doesn't leave one with any clear cut notion of precisely what it is the filmmaker is trying to say.

The message is a bit clouded, ambiguous, and metaphoric for my tastes. The execution of the film is unique in that it relies almost wholly on an essentially monochromatic underground world in which atmosphere is everything.

I was interested at first, but I eventually simply wanted it to end. The narrative composition leaves much to be desired. It did not create any sense of suspense or interest in precisely what was happening in this little world.

The revelations at the conclusion seem like a huge let down and almost beside the point. A straight atmospheric piece in which the philosophical message was toned down or eliminated would have made a much stronger film.

The films only selling points for me involved the, at times, eerie atmosphere. The narrative really just distracted from this though. A failure.