Curse of Aurore

Stars: Llana Barron, Jordan Kaplan, Lex Wilson, Agathe Salzmann

Director: Mehran C Torgoley

Another in the hopefully diminishing series of 'found footage' horror movies, this is hosted by a heavily-tattooed man called Craig Nolan, who introduces us to a small cardboard box bought 'on the Dark Web' which contains a thumb drive detailing a journey through snowbound rural Quebec by three filmmakers scouting locations for a movie based on a 100-year-old murder that (really) happened there, when a young girl was tortured and put to death by her father and evil stepmother.

Renting a house, they are disturbed by a procession of candle-bearing hooded figures entering the house next door, and later by fleeting visions of a girl in 1920s' costume. They also visit Aurore's house and foolishly steal a cross and beads from her room, as well as an old book on the occult which seems to have nothing but blank pages.

I sincerely hope this doesn't make the film sound any more interesting than it is. The first 20 minutes are terminally boring, the next hour only mostly boring. All the 'possession', supernatural and demonic action is packed into the last nine minutes of a film which could easily and perhaps more profitably have been a half-hour short to be sold to late-night TV.

Performances are OK in a naturalistic manner, including that of leading lady Barron, who also co-produced and co-wrote the thing.

David Quinlan

Canada 2020. UK Distributor: Amazon (Cult Cinema). Colour (unspecified).
89 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 1, Swearing 2.

Review date: 28 Sep 2021