DEATH OF A YELLOW BIRD

After deciding to halt cancer treatment, an unnamed man travels to his family’s old cabin in the dead of a snowy winter to find some peace and quiet. Alone, with no outside contact besides difficult, strained conversations with his mother and wife, he starts to sense a strange presence. Haunted by a tragedy he can’t quite remember, finding an old camcorder and a collection of VHS home videos only makes the strangeness feel more acute. In an attempt to find some stability in his isolation, the man begins to film videos for his young son, but distortions and threatening sounds on the recorded tapes convince the man there is a ghost with him.

Cody Calahan’s film is a heartrending, beautiful examination of grief, family, and sacrifice. While the "cabin in the woods" horror movie is certainly a genre staple, Calahan’s deployment of stark imagery and an otherworldly soundscape give the audience a sense of emotional trauma more than creeping, violent dread. Long scenes of fresh snow and a dim cabin are punctuated by bright, sunlit flashbacks and home movies of the man’s childhood at the cabin with his family. When the man begins to hear the mysterious presence in his recordings, the film’s sound uses garbled, staticky words to communicate the otherworldliness of the entity and the man’s own mysterious past and identity. Would it surprise you to know the director was a producer on the soundscape horror UNDERTONE from earlier this year?

If Terrence Malick made a ghost movie, it might look something like DEATH OF A YELLOW BIRD. Torn between memory and the future, the protagonist is stuck in an alienating environment with a need for emotional closure to resolve his responsibility for a lingering familial trauma. With a final act that crosses time, this slow-burn, atmospheric horror movie builds to an unexpected finale. Calahan’s feature is an unsettling look at personal healing and sacrifice, with a sound design that demands a theatrical viewing experience. The film is sure to be one of the most cathartic experiences at this year’s fest. (AUSTIN KING)