Mercy Falls

This film has potential but is held short of the finish line by its middling plot and flimsy dialogue. However, the movie is visually stunning with beautiful sweeping shots of the Scottish wilderness and some very appealing shots in various scenes, the cinematography is worth a nod. Mercy Falls relies on the trope characters upon which the genre was built. And the cast work wonders to make these cliche characters work and feel believable and likable in the face of some truly poor writing. Some characters come over better than others - eg lead Lauren Lyle's performance as uninteresting protagonist, Rhona, comes over unenthusiastic aside from key moments- but overall the cast should be proud of being the highlight of the film. Layla Kirk and Nicolette McKeown are particular stand outs. Kirk brings convincing life and (more importantly) enjoyability to an otherwise lazy trope character, Heather. McKeown steers the ship as a solid antagonist, her character, Carla's story has such great potential but is underutilised by the writer(s) in favor of something much less gripping or compelling. But nonetheless she digs deep for the movie's strongest feature and her charisma will almost have you rooting for Carla to succeed in her hunt.