Amber's Descent

Amber's Descent harkens back to the 1970's tonal horror films. In particular I am reminded of Let's Scare Jessica To Death. Albeit because of budget constraints and unfamiliar cast, these atmospheric horror films invoke unworldly vignettes set in small towns of nowhere in particular. It is the journey of the netherworld that helps define the film from start to finish. Where are we? What time frame does it take place in? It doesn't matter. In fact in any of these films the location can be a literal Dantesque hell from start to finish.

Like as with, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, Amber's Descent is really about a journey of her psyche. Is anything real? The over-the top characters and portrayals are cries from her emotional id. This is not a film that is supposed to have a clear point A to Point B. This is a film to get under your skin and and haunt you late at night watching it alone on a small TV in an old house in the country.

This is an anachronistic tale in the vein of all late night horror tales that I saw as a child and I still think about as an adult. Were they works of great cinema? No. Did they do their job and creep into my subconscious - yes.

In fact, like the character Amber, after all these years, I am uncertain if what I saw actually existed or was it my childhood innocence manifesting something for me to label as my fear?