Matthew Percefull
Rituals have been the subject of many horror films throughout the years. Whether it’s Ouija boards, hexes, or human sacrifice, the genre is no stranger to a ritual, religious or not. How do these sorts of rituals pair with the technological world of today? The newest indie horror film from Dark Sky Films Are You There? explores this intersection between the internet and spiritual practices.
Are You There? centers around a young woman named Rosa who is grieving the recent loss of her grandmother. We first see Rosa as she’s filming a segment for her YouTube channel. This channel features Rosa testing out different rituals on camera. As the story progresses, she uses this knowledge of rituals to overcome the intense loss she feels after this traumatic event. As the rituals get away from her, she must try to salvage what she can of her sanity to defeat an evil she unknowingly unleashed.
Are You There? has a really interesting concept for a horror film. For about 30 minutes, it lives up to this potential. The set-up is well crafted and creates a foreboding and melancholic atmosphere before anything “scary” occurs on screen. The relationships that are built between these characters, as we learn about the nature of Rosa’s grief, are handled very well in the opening act. The interactions that Rosa has with her roommate Natalie are especially natural in a way that makes you buy this connection.
The thing is, most of this disappears about 45 minutes in. Plotlines are set up and either ignored or sloppily concluded. The situations and characters that the film takes precious time to set up are ultimately not important to the narrative that Are You There? goes on to tell. It leaves the whole thing feeling disjointed. It almost feels like they wanted to tell two distinct stories.
Laura Solet is pretty strong in the lead role. She has to carry a lot of scenes alone. A majority of her dialogue comes from her communicating to a candle or a livestream. When she’s given a scene partner, Laura’s even better and really able to shine. Her banter with Eva Meyerson is great and is sorely missed when Meyerson’s character is unceremoniously removed from the film. Chase Bridges also does good work here as the suspiciously kind frat boy Travis. This role was also massively underserved, as this plot strand seems to only exist for the sake of the films first proper scare. While that moment is jarring and disturbing, the movie acts as if it just never happened. The cast here is consistently solid, Are You There? just doesn’t give them the proper material to really shine in a meaningful way.
Director Kim Noonan, in his debut feature, obviously had tons on his mind when making Are You There?. There is the obvious theme of grief at the forefront, but there is a lot of subtext that can be dug into. Belonging and community are a huge part of this as well. You add in the social commentary about influencer culture, and it makes the film jumbled and unorganized rather than poignant. By the third act, the narrative gets so convoluted that all of the interesting subtext gets lost in the chaos occurring on screen. In recent years, ‘Social horror’ as some call it has seen a rise in popularity. Are You There? has its heart in the right place in this regard. It tackles these issues in ways that are more subtle than usual. The filmmakers just never found a way to marry these themes to a story.
Are You There? isn’t all bad though, far from it. Besides the aforementioned performances and themes, this movie looks great especially for its small budget. Noonan and the rest of the crew involved definitely have a knack for visual storytelling. The ending is narratively muddled but visually it can be quite stunning. The use of color here is worth mentioning. It starts out with cold colors, blues and grays. Then as Rosa gets more sucked into her spiritual obsession, the color palate switches to a warmer palate of reds and oranges. This is a clever way to depict Rosa’s mind state. Stuff like that makes this film at least watchable while its story caves in on itself.
All of the pieces for a good supernatural thriller are present here. Good performances, bombastic visuals, an eerie score and a socially conscious script are all present with Are You There? They just never click together. This film could have been three distinct short films that would have been effective on their own. It’s the lack of focus and structure that lead to the disappointment here. In totality Are You There? is an interesting experiment that had the potential to do much more.
